


Witch Hunt

by Candy_Kittens



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 18th Century, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Blacksmith Steve Rogers, M/M, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Stucky - Freeform, Trust Issues, Witch Bucky Barnes, Witchcraft, Witches, mentions of past Pirate Bucky Barnes, mentions of past character death, past steggy, time period - 1735
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-01-05 14:16:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 45,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12191526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Candy_Kittens/pseuds/Candy_Kittens
Summary: It's 1735, and Bucky Barnes is being hunted down for being a witch - which to be fair, is exactly what he is.Witchcraft has always been in James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes's blood, and because of that, he's being hunted down. Townsfolk aren't so keen on witchcraft like Bucky is, and they believe that anyone who practises witchcraft is to be burned at the stake, or hanged until dead. Thankfully Bucky is good at blending in, and no one in this new town he's travelled to from far has any suspicion at all that he's a witch.Steven Rogers is the town's black smith, and lives alone with his two daughters, Grace and Elizabeth, after his wife had passed away.Steve is a simple man, just trying to supply for his two young daughters as best as he can. All he wants is a normal life, and to just care for his daughters like his wife wanted. But as soon as he finds Bucky asleep in his barn, his life turns into anything but normal.also posted on my Wattpad under the user, -hawkwing(was Punkstress_Gaskarth)





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! New story here, that'll be updated all throughout October! Or, at least I'll try to update it all throughout October anyway.
> 
> I'm going to mention that there may or may not be smut in this, and if there is, it'll be top!Steve and bottom!Bucky. I haven't quite decided if I do want to put smut into this or not. Chances are it'll just be implied though. 
> 
> Okay, I hope you all enjoy this story!
> 
>  
> 
> I also have this posted up over on my Wattpad account, -hawkwing _(was Punkstress_Gaskarth)_

He knows they're coming for him. James Barnes knows very well that the townsfolk are after him. In fact, the town’s Sheriff, Alexander Pierce, would most likely be here within the next hour or so to come take him away before his execution.

Recently, the town had discovered that Barnes is a witch, and they weren’t pleased to hear that. Now Barnes is to be hung by the neck until dead. _If_ they manage to catch him that is.

But the fact that the townsfolk think that hanging him by the neck until dead will actually kill him… James can’t help but find that rather amusing. Obviously he’s put a spell on himself to protect him, so a measly hanging won’t be able to kill him, or do much damage. The townsfolk don’t need to know about that though.

He’s been hung by the neck before a few years back. That was when he for a brief few months joined the crew of the Black Pearl under the command of Captain Jack Sparrow. He thought pirating might’ve been something for him. Turns out it wasn’t really for him.

At least witches aren’t something that pirates are bothered by that much. Though, they are rather afraid of them, Barnes has come to discover.

The witch glances over his shoulder towards the door to his small cottage home. There should be an angry mob turning up outside within the next hour. But Barnes shall be long gone by then. Off to a new town, where _hopefully_ his secret stays hidden for longer than it did in this town.

He has to admit it. Even if he may love being a witch, he sure wishes that he could be just some normal guy. It gets tiring having to move from town to town just to get away from his ultimate execution when the town finds out about how he’s a witch.

With what little belongings he owns stuffed into an old cloth bag, and into the pockets of his jacket, Barnes is ready to run. He must admit, he’s going to miss this little cottage that he’s called a home for the past three years. But it’s time to leave and find somewhere new.

Though, he can’t make it all the way to a new town on foot. That’ll take him days to get as far away from this place as possible. So there’s only one thing he can do.

Scanning around the small one room cottage one last time, Barnes heaves a sigh, before slinging the bag over his shoulder. He _really_ will miss this place.

Finally, once he’s ready to move out, he climbs out the window, not wanting to go straight out the door in case the angry mob is already close. Also because he needs to get onto the property behind his little cottage to steal one of the horses.

Not really something that he wants to do exactly, as the owner of the horses are a lovely old couple that Barnes is really going to miss. He’s even used his magic for good towards this couple, by helping their vegetable and fruit gardens grow strong - of course, all without their knowledge.

Making his way over towards the horse paddock, Barnes finds that the horses are still out trotting around. He suspects that Mr. Murphy will be out in a couple hours to take the horses back into the barn for the night.

Barnes knows each of these horses by name, as he’s often helped out Mr Murphy and his wife with them plenty of times before. He definitely regrets that he’s about to steal one of their horses, but it’s the only way that he’s going to be able to escape.

Though, he can always send the horse back here once he’s made it to a new town. As long as he puts a spell on the horse he takes, it’ll hopefully make it’s own way back here safe and sound. Then again, he’s never actually known if that spell works or not. Especially considering he’s only used it a couple of times before.

Walking over to a chestnut mare, who stood closest to the fence, Barnes decides that she’ll be the one that he’ll be taking. She looks strong enough, and if Barnes remembers correctly, her name is Agatha.

He knows that he should probably get a saddle for her, but he _really_ doesn’t want to waste too much time getting the saddle onto the horse. He also trusts the horse enough to not throw him off her. Well, kind of anyway.

Looking behind him, he doesn’t spot an angry mob outside his old home, nor does he spot the sheriff anywhere, so he’s got enough time to run. But he wants to have as much of a head start as he can get.

Leading the horse over to a nearby haystack, Barnes climbs up onto her back carefully, before quietly whispering something into her ear, and stroking a hand down her neck. He didn’t whisper much to the horse, just a little spell for her to follow his command, and to make as little noise as possible. Also, he’s going to need her to jump the fence, before they’re off towards a new town.

And once they’ve made it to a new town, Barnes can start over fresh. And, figure out whether or not he’s going to send the horse back on the same path back to her home. He probably should, but he barely knows if the spell even works, and he doesn’t want to risk the horse getting hurt at all on her way back to her home.

But for now, Barnes is off, heading towards a new town as far from this one as possible. Hoping that this time, no one will ever find out about the fact that he’s a witch...


	2. I - Apologies For Sleeping In Your Barn, Sir...

Steve Rogers, a simple blacksmith and single parent to his two daughter’s Grace aged ten, and Elizabeth aged fifteen, has no idea how much his life is about to change very soon. He has no clue about the young witch that had taken shelter inside his barn for the night with his horse.

So, early in the morning when he went out to check on his barn animals, he was understandably confused as to why there was a man asleep on one of the haystacks, with a chestnut mare near him. He had never seen this man or the horse before in his life, so he doesn’t understand who this man is, and why he’s in his barn. Or where this newcomer has came from.

Though, judging by the man’s clothes and little belongings, Steve assumes that the man must be a traveller down on his luck. Still, of all places, Steve doesn’t understand why he chose his barn to sleep in, when there’s a fairly cheap Inn only a few miles away in town.

Walking over to the man cautiously, Steve examines him. He’s never seen him before, so he must be from out of town. He’s certain he’s not seen this man in town, Steve knows everyone in their small town. He’d remember if he had seen this man before.

From what he could see of the man, he may be around the same height as Steve himself, and had shoulder length dark brown hair, and from what Steve could tell, a bit of stubble. The clothes he was wearing looked rather worn out, so by the looks of things the man must not have that much money.

James knew that he wasn’t alone inside the barn. He could sense that the man who lived here, had came into the barn, and spotted him sleeping on top of the haystacks. But, James isn’t entirely sure how to go about this now that he’s been caught.

He should probably get up and apologize to the man for sleeping in his barn, but at the same time, James doesn’t want to get up. Especially when he’s been travelling for almost a week straight now with hardly anytime to stop and rest, so he’s understandably beyond tired right now. And his magic only does so much with helping one stay up for long periods of time.

Making up his mind, James opens his eyes, and glances up at the man standing in front of him, before sitting up fully to get a good look at the man. The guy had a rather large build, and looked around the same height as James himself. He had short dark blond hair that fell just below his ears, with a beard that looked like it needed a bit of a trim just to tidy it up, and he had the most beautiful blue eyes that James had ever seen on anyone.

Now, James knows that it’s wrong to lust after someone of the same gender, but he’s also not going to lie to himself and say that there hasn’t been men that he’s felt attracted to. And this man standing in front of him, is no exception. James certainly found the man standing in front of him to be absolutely attractive.

“May I inquire why you’re asleep in my barn?” The man asks, examining the stranger sitting on the hay in his barn.

“Apologies for sleeping in your barn, sir.” James starts, getting up off the haystack, and dusting off his pants. “I’ve got no place else to go. I’ve been travelling by horse for almost a week you see, and I’ve got no money on me to go to an Inn.” He explains.

Well, James _does_ have a bit of money, but it’s certainly not enough. He never really had much money before he fled the old town he was living in anyway.

“Who are you?” Steve asks, looking the stranger up and down.

“Sorry. I’m Bucky Barnes.” He says, introducing himself, deciding on using the name Bucky instead of James. That was the name he had went under when he was a pirate for a short amount of time, and as a matter of fact, he actually likes it a lot more than James.

“Bucky?” Steve asks. “Strange name.” He comments.

James laughs a little, shaking his head. “Well, my name _is_ actually James, but I rather like the way Bucky sounds instead.” He says. “May I ask what your name is? You know mine, so it’s only fair that I find out yours.”

“I’m Steve Rogers.” He says, introducing himself. “Do you want to come inside? Get something to eat?” Steve asks. “You must be hungry.”

James nods. He doesn’t really want to cause any inconvenience to this man, but he’s starving right now. He hasn’t eaten anything for three days now. “If you wouldn’t mind.” He says.

Steve smiles, getting James to follow him. He’s not really sure why he’s inviting a complete stranger into his house, but Steve can’t help but feel rather, interested in finding out more about this man, and what his story is. Surely there must be a good reason to why he’s been travelling for almost a week by horse?

“Nice place you’ve got here.” James says, as he follows Steve into the small house.

James takes note that it appears that Steve doesn’t seem to have a lot of money by how small his house is - but nowhere near as small as his little cottage he himself had owned - and by what little items he had inside his home. But either way, it looked like a pretty cozy home.

“So, you got a wife?” Steve asks, awhile after he had gotten James something to eat and drink, and they’re now just sitting on the small sofa in the main room of the house.

James shakes his head at that. He’s never been interested in finding a partner. In fact, he doesn’t think that with what he is, that it would be a very good idea for him to find someone to be with. That, and the fact that he hasn’t felt attraction to any women.

“No.” He says. “Do you?” He asks, curious to know whether the blond has a wife or not.

Steve’s quiet for a bit, looking down at the ground before shaking his head. “I _did_ have a wife.” He says, memories of his wife, Margaret - or Peggy as she liked to be called - before her death just two years ago. “She died.”

James frowns, looking away. He wasn’t expecting that. “I’m so sorry.” He says.

Steve smiles a little. “Yeah, me too.” He sighs. “It’s been hard without having her here. Especially on my daughters, Grace and Elizabeth.”

“Is there anything I could possibly do to help?” James asks. Knowing that this man is a single father, he can’t help but want to help in any way he possibly can. “I saw that you’ve got a vegetable garden. I’m good at gardening, and I’m good with animals.”

Well, mainly the only way that James is good at both of those, is because of his magic. But Steve doesn’t need to know about that. He doesn’t know how Steve feels towards witches, but he’s assuming that it’s just like how everyone else feels towards witches. That they’re evil, and that they should be executed. Then again. Steve might have a different opinion about witches. But James certainly doesn’t want to risk it.

Steve is surprised by this man’s offer of helping out ound here in any way he can. He wasn’t expecting him to offer to help. He was expecting that he’d leave soon after having something to eat, but here Bucky is, willing to help out in any way he can.

Now, Steve must admit that having someone else to help out round the place won’t be so bad, especially considering Steve has got the farm to run by himself along with his two daughters. Then there’s also the fact that he’s the town’s blacksmith.

“Are you sure?” Steve asks, not expecting that this complete stranger is offering to help out around the place.

James nods. “I’m sure.” He says. “I’ve nowhere else to go, and I need something to do. So I’m willing to help out around here.”

Steve smiles, nodding. “Well, alright then, Bucky.” He says. “It’ll be nice to have another man around the house for once.” He laughs a little.

James can’t help but laugh also. Steve seems like a really nice guy, and James is certainly looking forwards to getting to know him more. The only thing is, he can not allow himself to grow too close to him, or have him find out about the fact that he’s a witch. He’s not sure what Steve would do if he were to discover that he’s a witch, but he has no intentions of finding out anytime soon, or at all.

Just _hopefully_ James will be able to stay in this town for a long while. Before he’s forced to move onto somewhere else to hide from the people that want him dead.

He’s tired of having to run, and all he wants is to have some place where he can stay permanently. Unfortunately though, James doesn’t think that’ll ever be possible, not with what he is anyway.

Everyone thinks that witches are all evil, and that they are to be executed. And that is something that is likely to never change. Or at least not while James is still living…


	3. II - Who is That Man, Papa?

Later on in the day, James found himself outside helping Steve with the gardening. James had discovered that Steve’s garden didn’t look the greatest. A lot of the plants were dead, while the rest had hardly anything growing on them. Maybe in a couple days James will put a spell on the plants to make them all grow strong and well.

Though, he might make the effects of the spell work over time, so it’s not so strange that everything would just suddenly start growing strong within a days time. That might cause Steve to grow some suspicions towards him, and James doesn’t want that. He rather likes this man, after only having met him for not even a day now.

So far, James had caught no sight of Steve’s daughters, as he would gladly like to meet them, but he suspects that Steve wants to get to know him a little more before he introduces him to his daughters. James supposes that’s why he hasn’t caught sight of them yet. Or maybe they’re off learning at the town’s school. That would seem the more likely reason.

“So, where is it you’re headed to?” Steve asks, catching James’s attention, as they picked what little fruit and vegetables were ripe on the plants.

James stiffens slightly, before shaking his head and shrugging. Not really knowing the exact answer to that. Or, at least an answer that he could easily tell Steve. He can’t very well tell Steve that he’s headed to any town just to escape his old one that discovered his secret.

“I wasn’t really going anywhere in particular.” He says. “I guess I just needed a new environment. I don’t really like staying in one place for very long.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly a lie. James doesn’t like staying in one place for very long in case someone discovers his secret. But then again, he’s also finding more recently that he wishes that there could be one place that he could just stay permanently. After awhile, the constant moving around becomes rather tiresome, and James isn’t sure how much more of it he can take. That’s why he’s hoping that with this town that he can stay a lot longer - maybe even permanently - without anyone ever finding out about his secret.

“That must get rather tiresome after awhile.” Steve comments. “Wouldn't you rather have somewhere you can stay permanently without having to worry about moving around?”

James shrugs. “I'll admit that that would be nice.“ He starts, scratching at the back of his neck. “But I like travelling, and meeting new people.” He says. “But yes, I'd like to one day have somewhere I can stay permanently.”

He  _ did _ almost have a permanent place to stay at back in the town he had just travelled from. But that only lasted three years and he was hoping that it would’ve lasted more than that. Though, three years is a lot longer than all the places before that.

Not meeting Steve in the eye, James moves over towards the tomato plants. There weren’t very many growing on the plants, but it looked like just enough. For today that is…

Steve watches James closely. He feels as though there’s a lot of secrets that this man is hiding. But he has every right to keep secrets. They only just met this morning, and Steve doesn’t expect him to tell his whole life story to a complete stranger.

“I think this is all we’re going to be able to get from these plants.” Steve sighs after awhile, glancing down at their pitiful pile of fruit and vegetables in their baskets. “I suppose it should be enough for the four of us tonight, and if we’re lucky the girls would’ve been able to get a couple of fish from the markets.”

As he looks over at James, he notices the man frowning down at the fruit and vegetables that they’ve managed to pick, before he’s looking up around at the garden. He nods slowly, before turning to Steve. “You sure there’s none that we’ve missed?” He asks.

“All the rest that we’ve left aren’t ripe yet.” Steve sighs. “And there’s already such a small amount.”

James nods, but doesn’t say anything else, as he looks around the garden once more.

“Come on, let’s take this lot inside.” Steve says, picking up one of the baskets. “The girls should be home soon.”

As James follows Steve into the house, he decides that he really needs to help Steve and his daughters out around here with his magic. Though, he’s going to have to figure out a way of doing it without them realizing that it’s him that’s doing it. He’s not sure how they’ll react knowing that he’s a witch, so he’s got to figure out a way of doing it without them suspecting that he’s behind it.

Not too long afterwards, two girls came running inside and over to Steve. James assumes that they must be his daughter’s Elizabeth and Grace. The two of them were carrying two cloth bags each, and by the smell, James could tell that there was fish in at least one of the bags.

“Papa!” The shortest girl - who James is assuming is Grace - exclaims. “Look at what Ms. Barton made for us!”

From what James could see from where he sat at the furthest end of the sofa away from Steve and his daughters, both the girls appeared to have a dress each.

“That’s wonderful, Grace.” Steve smiles. “I hope you both said thank you to Natasha from the dresses.”

Both the girls nod their heads, before the tallest - who James guesses is Elizabeth - looks over at him in confusion. She must’ve only just noticed him sitting there in silence just watching them.

“Who is that man, papa?” She asks, looking over at her father, as she pushes Grace behind her.

Steve looks between her and James. “Elizabeth. Grace.” He starts. “This is James Barnes, or Bucky. He’ll be staying with us for awhile.” He says.

James notices that both girls look a little wary of him, and he suddenly feels as though it’s maybe not a good idea for him to stay here as Grace runs off to where James is assuming is her bedroom. Maybe he should just leave? He doesn’t want to stay here if it’s going to make Steve’s daughters uncomfortable. But then again, he does want to help them out as much as he possibly can.

“Papa, can I talk to you?” Elizabeth asks. “Alone?”

Steve looks between James and Elizabeth, before nodding. “Alright.” He says, getting up off the couch and following her into another room after excusing himself for just a moment.

“Papa, don’t you remember what happened last time when you invited a stranger to stay with us?” Elizabeth asks once the two of them are in the other room where James can’t hear them. “Don’t you remember what happened to mom?”

Steve sighs. He had a feeling that Elizabeth would do this. “Elizabeth, what happened last time won’t happen this time around.” He says. “And no, I haven’t forgotten what had happened to your mother.”

“Then why are you so easily allowing a stranger into our home again?” She asks.

Steve has to admit that she’s right there. He has probably let James into their home too easily, especially after what happened last time. But there’s just something about this man that makes him want to find out more about him. He has no idea why, but there’s something he finds interesting about this man.

“Sweetheart.” He sighs, pulling her into a hug. “I promise you that what happened last time, won’t happen again.” He assures her. “There’s nothing to worry about with Bucky. And he probably won’t be staying for very long. He just needs a place to stay for awhile.”

“I don’t trust him, papa.” She sighs.

“I know you don’t.” Steve sighs. “But I promise you. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Ever since what had happened with her mother two years ago, Elizabeth has been wary of strangers. Grace doesn’t know exactly how her mother had died, and Steve would rather keep it at that. Or, just until she’s old enough to understand. But what had happened two years ago, has caused both Elizabeth and Grace to become wary of strangers.

But Steve has sworn to protect both Elizabeth and Grace with his life. It was Margaret’s dying wish and he’s not about to break the promise he made to her. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect his daughters.

There’s nothing in this world that is more important to him than his daughters, and he’ll do anything to keep them safe.

"Is she okay?" James asks, once Steve returns out into the main room of the house, where James is still seated on the sofa.

Steve sighs, sitting down on the sofa. "Yeah, she'll be fine." He says. "She just doesn't trust strangers very easily. Not after what happened last time."

James nods, deciding not to push the subject further. But at the same time he can't help but wonder what exactly had happened last time...


	4. III - Late Night Thoughts Of A Witch

James wasn’t sure what time it was when he had snuck out of Steve’s house and made his way out to the barn. All he knew, was that it was rather late, so he should hopefully not have to worry about Steve following him out here. Then again, he still doesn’t really know the guy, so there’s probably still every chance that Steve will come out here looking for him after he doesn’t find him out on the sofa where he left him.

But, however long it may take for Steve to realize that James is gone, well James can use that time to go through his bag and his coat that he’s left out in the barn. Maybe even figure out if he’s going to send the horse back to her owners, though he doesn’t want the horse to get hurt on the way back, so maybe he should just keep her here with him.

As he rummages through his old cloth bag with a lit candle next to him, he sighs in relief as he finds his spellbook still in there, along with all his other bits and pieces. He really doesn’t have that much stuff, so it comes as a relief to him to find that all his belongings are still there. There wasn’t really that much stuff that he had in his coat pockets, mainly a wad of cash that barely came to thirty dollars, and a small pouch full of coins. He’s unsure of how much coins there are, but he has a feeling it’s barely anything. He’s sure he can make that money last for a short while, he’s survived on less before.

As he just sits there on the floor of the barn leaning against one of the haystacks, he finds himself thinking over stuff. More importantly about his life up until this point. About how his mother was executed for being a witch when he was only thirteen, and how he followed in her footsteps and became a witch also just as he was destined to be. That, he supposes wasn’t the smartest idea, but he loves witchcraft and he can’t bare to give it up.

He thinks over his short time as a pirate under the command of Captain Jack Sparrow, which honestly wasn’t as bad as he was expecting it to be, but it also wasn’t something he came to enjoy. Partly because he got captured and was sentenced to be hung by the neck until dead. Now, he can confirm being hung by the neck until dead is no fun at all. Thank god he put a spell on himself that stopped him from dying.

Another reason to why he had decided that pirating wasn’t for him, was because of some of Captain Sparrow’s rivals… god, he doesn’t even know where to begin with some of them. Though, he supposes that if he had sailed under a different captain, then things might’ve been a bit more, pleasant. Or, as pleasant as they can get with being a pirate.

After his pirating gig, he had ended up travelling to a new town. One that he had managed to stay at for about a year, before witches were being found in the town and killed. He had fled before anyone could identify him as a witch. The next town after that he had managed to stay in for no more than a month before he packed up his belongings and left. Though to be fair, he hadn’t actually left that town on the townsfolk suspecting him of witchcraft. He just didn’t like that town. Not to mention there were a couple women who were trying to get with him.

He had ended up in a couple more towns after that, before settling in the last town where he managed to stay in for three years without anyone finding out about him being a witch. He really thought that town would be the one that he finally managed to settle down in, but nope. Unfortunately for James, the townsfolk found out about him, so he had no choice but to flee before his execution.

Then finally he ended up in this town, and staying with some guy that he’s barely known for a day. Luckily so far everything seems to be going okay, so he may have a chance of settling down here. Whether it be for a few months or years though, James doesn’t know, but he sure hopes he’s able to stay here for awhile without anyone finding out about him.

As he hears footsteps approaching the barn, he stands up slowly, and walks over to the doorway. He had no doubt that it would be Steve, so he wasn’t too surprised to find Steve walking over to him.

“Hey, Bucky. You alright?” Steve asks, looking him up and down. “What are you doing out here?”

Steve had gone out into the main room of the house before just to check on James and to make sure he’s okay, but when he didn’t find him on the sofa or anywhere else in the house he thought he might as well have a look outside. It wouldn’t have surprised him if James had moved on and left this town, but he’s got to admit that he would’ve been disappointed if that’s what had happened. So, as he finds James out in the barn, he’s overcome with a sense of relief that the traveller is still there.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” James sighs, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. He wasn’t really  _ that _ tired, but he wasn’t quite wide awake either. “I just needed to go out for a walk.” He looks over his shoulder. “Plus, my stuff is still out here.”

Steve nods looking over in the direction where James is looking in. “You can take them inside if you want.”

James shakes his head. “Thanks, but I’d rather not.” He says. He doesn’t want to keep his things inside incase Steve or his daughters end up looking through his bag and find his spellbook. If that were to happen, his secret will be uncovered, and he’ll have to run again. He doesn’t want that, he rather likes it here so far, even if it has only been a day that he’s been here.

“I’ve got, trust issues.” He lies. Though, it wasn’t  _ really _ a lie. He does have a bit of trust issues. But he’d rather not keep his belongings inside where Steve can easily look through them.

“Fair enough.” Steve nods. “Though, you’re not going to just keep them in here, are you?” He questions. “There’s rats and mice in here, and they may try and get into your stuff.”

James realizes that Steve is right, as he hears a couple rats moving around in the hay on the floor. He doesn’t want any rats or mice getting into his bag and eating his stuff, but where else can he put his stuff so it’s not inside Steve’s house incase Steve or his daughters go looking through it? He doesn’t trust them not to go through his stuff, especially when he’s only known them for barely a day now.

“I’ll uh, work out something in the morning.” James decides. “I’m sure they’ll be fine till the morning.”

Steve nods. “Well, there’s a shelf over there that you can just put your stuff on for now.” He indicates over to one side of the room. “Your stuff should be safe up there for tonight.” He says. “Usually the rats and mice just stay on the barn floor. Though, there is a couple cats that live in here. A black and white one and another black one. They usually keep to themselves though.”

James nods. “No wonder I didn’t spot them in here last night.” He says, turning around to go grab his bag and coat before storing them away on the shelf like Steve had said.

He still doesn’t trust Steve enough to not touch his stuff, but he’s just going to have to put up with it for tonight. Though he has put a spell on his stuff so anyone who isn’t himself isn’t interested in looking through everything. The thing is though, he’s not sure how well it really works. There are some spells that he hasn’t really used, and some he isn’t so confident in using.

Out of the corner of his eye, James notices what he’s assuming is the two cats that Steve was referring to. He thinks it is at least, he can’t really tell too well in this light, not even with the candle he’s holding. Though, from what he can tell, there looks to be more than two cats.

“I thought you said there was only two cats?” He asks, walking back over to Steve. “I think I saw more than two cats over there, but I can’t be sure.”

Steve shrugs. “Sometimes there’s a couple more cats that come along, but usually only stay for a night or two before going again.” He says. “I just leave them be. They catch the mice in here, so it’s a win for me and a win for the cats.” He laughs. “Though, I swear it’s the exact same cats coming back each time.”

James nods. “Sounds like you may have a feral cat problem.” He says.

“Yeah, probably.” Steve nods. “Though, there not doing any harm, so I don’t bother doing anything about it.” He says. “Come on, let’s head back inside. It’s starting to get a little cold right now.”

James had hardly noticed the cold, until Steve mentioned it, and he supposes that Steve is right and that they should both head on inside. But before they do that, James wants to just go and check on his horse. Well, she’s not  _ his _ horse, but considering he’s decided not to send her back to her owners incase she gets hurt on the way, he guesses that Agatha is now his horse in a way.

“Can I just go check on Agatha first?” He asks. “My horse.” Bucky adds, as he notices the confused look on Steve’s face in dim light. “I want to make sure that she’s alright. We did put her in with your horses after all, and I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

Steve nods. “Alright. Let’s head on over to the stables then.” He says.

With that, the two of them are making their way over to the stables where the horses are being kept for the night. As soon as James spots Agatha, he makes his way over to her and checks her over as much as he can with the dim light of the candle flame. From what he can tell, she seems fine. Though, he’s no expert on horses, he only just helped out Mr. Murphy -  _ his old neighbor  _ \- and his wife to feed them most of the time. It was the same with the other animals too really. He  _ did _ learn how to shear a sheep though. He wasn’t very good at it, but he wasn’t absolutely terrible at it either.

Once they’re done in there, the pair of them head on back inside, Steve going back off into his room, while James takes up his place on the sofa once more. Though, as much as he tries to, James can’t find himself getting back to sleep…


	5. IV - The Potatoes Grow Good

The next morning James woke up to the smell of food, something that he’s never really woken up to before, so he finds himself pleasantly surprised. He really wasn’t expecting to wake up to food being cooked. But he’s not about to complain about it. Though, maybe he can see if there’s anything that he could possibly do to help.

Getting up off the sofa, he walks into the small kitchen area to find Steve busy cooking what smelt like eggs and toast in a pan over the kitchen fireplace. He doesn’t seem to look as though he needs any help, but James still doesn’t want to make him do it all himself.

“Hey.” James starts, walking over to Steve’s side. “You need any help?”

Steve looks over at him. “Nope. I’m all good here.” He says. “Just go sit down and I’ll call you when breakfast is ready.”

James nods. “Where are the girls?” He asks, looking around for them, but not seeing them anywhere.

“They’ve gone off to school.” Steve says. “They left earlier this morning. I went off to the markets while you were asleep to get some bread for us. You were still asleep and I didn’t want to wake you.”

James nods. He actually wasn’t expecting that he’d sleep through all that, which is actually surprising to him, as he’s not usually a very heavy sleeper. Then again, he didn’t really get that much sleep last night, so it probably made sense why he didn’t get woken up by Steve or his daughters at all.

Walking out of the kitchen after he knows for sure that Steve doesn’t need his help right now, he walks back into the main room of the house and sits down on the couch. He’s not too sure what he should do while he waits for Steve to finish up in the kitchen. He’s never actually lived with anyone before - not counting while he was a pirate for a couple months. He’s always been living alone, so actually living with someone else is considerably different to him. He hasn’t lived with others since he was a child.

James isn’t entirely sure if he’ll ever get used to living with other people one day, or if he’ll just forever live alone. Though, it’s probably for the better if he lives alone. For now though, he’s going to have to get used to living with other people. He’s not sure how long he’ll be staying here for, so he better try and get used to it. But he’s just going to have to try harder to hide the fact that he’s a witch from them. Which isn’t too terribly hard, as he’s good at blending in. Well, most of the time anyway.

It doesn’t take too much longer after that for Steve to make his way over to James carrying two plates with food. Steve hands one of the plates over to James, and they both sit there on the sofa together eating breakfast. Though, James supposes that it’s not really breakfast time as such, more like close to lunchtime, but it doesn’t really matter all that much. What matters is that the both of them have some food for the day.

Once they’ve finished eating, the two of them clean up their dishes, before making their way outside to do a bit of gardening. There probably isn’t too much that they’ll be able to pick from the garden, but at least it’ll hopefully be enough for the next couple of days if they ration the food out enough to cover the next few days. They’ve still got some of the fruit and vegetables that they had picked yesterday though, so that can add onto their rationing for the next few days.

“I’m not sure how much we’re going to be able to pick today.” Steve sighs, as the two of them walk over to the garden. “We might need to go out to the markets and see what we can get from there if we can’t pick enough here.”

James nods. “I’m sure we’ll be able to pick something.” He says, as he waters the tomato plants. “I’ve noticed that your potatoes grow pretty well.”

Steve nods. The main thing that even seems to grow well for him, are the potatoes. Everything else just doesn’t grow as well as he’d like them to. Oh what he wouldn’t do to have a garden that grows very well all year round. All he wants is enough food and money to care for his daughters, but unfortunately his garden doesn’t grow very well aside from the potatoes, and his hens barely lay enough eggs for them all. But they manage with what little they have.

Though, his blacksmith work gives an okay pay, but that money barely lasts a week, sometimes more if he’s lucky. Lately though, not many people seem to be coming into shop to get their tools fixed, and barely anyone comes in anymore wanting a sword or knife specifically made for them. Hardly anyone in this town comes into buy an already made sword either. It’s times like that when Steve debates on whether or not he should start selling swords to pirates again. Though, last time he did that, he still didn’t get much money.

Maybe Steve can consider taking a second job at The Howling Wolf tavern in town. He’s fairly certain that they’re looking for workers.

“Honestly, Bucky.” Steve starts. “I hope you don’t mind just eating potatoes.” He laughs. “At this rate, that will be all that we’re able to eat.”

James shrugs. “It’s food, so I don’t mind.” He says. “Though, maybe I can see if I can find a small job somewhere just so I can have a bit of money.”

“The Howling Wolf tavern is looking for workers.” Steve says. “Maybe the two of us can go over there a bit later and see?” He suggests. “I can also introduce you to some of my friends.”

“I’d like that.” James nods, after thinking about it for awhile. He’s worked at a tavern a few years back, though it wasn’t for a very long amount of time, maybe only about two or three months before he had left.

He’s not too sure if he remembers exactly how to work in a tavern, but James is sure how it works will come back to him if he starts working there. It shouldn’t be too difficult anyway, all you do, is serve people their drinks _if_ you’re the bartender that is.

“Great.” Steve smiles. “Well, once we’re finished up here we can head on over there and check it out.” He says.

With that, the pair of them get back to work on the gardening, and then the looking after of the farm animals. It took awhile to finish everything, but the two of them managed to get it all done by the afternoon.

“You hungry?” Steve asks. “We could cook up some potatoes before we head on over to The Howling Wolf.” He suggests.

James shrugs. He does feel rather hungry right now. Doing gardening and looking after the animals is tiring work, he almost can’t be bothered going out to the tavern today, but they’ve got to head out to get some stuff from the markets anyway.

“Yes, I’m hungry.” He says, looking over at Steve, who nods before he’s making his way over to the kitchen to cook up a couple potatoes.

After sitting there for a bit, James stands up and follows Steve into the kitchen. He was thinking about seeing if there was anything he could do to help in here, but then he remembers that he still has to move his belongings somewhere else other than in the barn. But where he can move them to to keep them safe, he’s not entirely sure.

“Hey, Steve? I’m just going outside for a bit.” He says, getting Steve’s attention. “To move my things out of the barn.” He adds, before Steve could ask why.

“Alright.” Steve nods, as he cleans the dirt off a couple of the potatoes.

James nods also, before making his way outside and over to the barn. He goes straight over to the shelf where he had placed his things last night and grabs them. Though, first he checks to make sure everything is still there and that no rats or mice have gotten into anything. Luckily no rats or mice have gotten into his things and everything is still there, so he makes his way out of the barn.

Though, before he’s about to exit the barn, he notices a group of cats hanging over in one corner of the barn. There was a black and white one and a black one like Steve had said lived in here, and there was also a ginger cat, and a gray cat over by the black and white cat and the black cat. He contemplates going over towards them, but decides against it, and leaves the cats be as he turns and exits the barn,

Now all he needs to do, is hide his belongings somewhere safe. He doesn’t trust Steve or his two daughters enough to keep his belongings in their house somewhere, but he also doesn’t exactly trust keeping his things hidden somewhere outside. If he keeps his stuff hidden outside somewhere, then there’s a chance that they may get damaged, and he doesn’t want that to happen at all.

Maybe he should just keep them hidden somewhere in the barn? He did see some okay hiding places in there to hide his stuff, so maybe he should just find somewhere in there to hide it? Then again, Steve or his daughters might find his stuff in there. But there’s no other place that he can think of to hide his belongings, so maybe it’s the only place to hide them.

With that, he’s heading back into the barn to find a decent enough spot to hide his things high up off the ground so no rats or mice get to it. He just hopes that his stuff is well hidden so no one can find it except for him.

He doesn’t want anyone to find out his secret, and he certainly doesn’t want to flee this town so soon after arriving here...


	6. V - The Howling Wolf

Steve and James don’t find themselves going out to The Howling Wolf Tavern until the next morning, which is probably a bit of a better idea as it was getting late the day before when they were originally going to head on out to the tavern, and out to the markets which they didn’t end up doing either. Plus, there was the fact that Elizabeth and Grace would’ve returned home soon and if Steve and James had headed over to the Tavern, then the girls would’ve arrived home to an empty house. Steve didn’t really want the girls to arrive home to an empty house.

So that’s why the two of them had decided to wait until the next day to head on over there. The two of them didn’t really have that much work to do on the farm apart from feed the animals, so they had the day off to go into town. They had to go off into town anyway to get some stuff from the markets anyway, which they plan on doing after going to the tavern.

“Come on.” Steve says, as he and James walk out of the house. “Would you like to walk, or take one of the horses?”

James shrugs, not really caring on the method they use to get into town. “I don’t really mind.” He says. “Though, you mentioned earlier that you still need to get some stuff from the markets, so maybe we should take something that allows us to carry home everything.”

Steve nods. “Horse it is.” He says. “We can put the stuff we need to get from the markets into our bags.” He adds, referring to the cloth bags the two of them are carrying. “They should fit everything we need to purchase.”

With that, the two of them are heading on over to the horse stables, where they get two of the horse's saddled up and ready to move on out. Of course, James chooses to take Agatha while Steve takes one of his own horses. James would feel a bit weird if he were to take one of Steve’s horses, and besides, Agatha seems like she’d like to go out for a walk anyway, despite having travelled for a week straight with only short rests prior to arriving in this town.

“Lead the way.” James says, once the two of them have saddled up their horses, and are ready to head on out into town.

James has no idea what way to go to get into town, considering he’s not left Steve’s property since he arrived, so he allows Steve to take the lead as the two of them ride their horses into town.

It doesn’t take them too long to get into town, and as soon as they get there, James notices some of the townsfolk giving him curious looks. He had a feeling this would happen, new town and all, it’s bound to make the residence curious when a newcomer arrives. But the townsfolk don’t know that James isn’t just any old newcomer.

Finally, the two of them make it to The Howling Wolf Tavern and get off their horse's, tying them up out the side of the tavern, where another horse is standing. James does hope that nothing happens to either of the horses while they’re inside.

As the two of them enter the tavern, James can’t help but look around inside. As far as places like this go, it didn’t look too bad. A little bit dirty, but other than that, this place doesn’t look too bad. Definitely a lot nicer than ones that James has been to previously.

“Mornin, Rogers.” A guy behind the bar greets, as James and Steve made their way over to him. “Who’s your friend?”

“Stark, this is James Barnes, or Bucky.” Steve introduces James to the other guy. “Bucky, this is Tony Stark. The owner of The Howling Wolf, and one of my good friends.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” James says, shaking hands with the man, Tony Stark.

“Nice to meet you, too.” Tony says, before turning to Steve. “So, what can I get you both today?” He asks.

Steve shrugs. “Well, I was wondering if you were still looking for some new workers.” He says. “Bucky is looking for some work, and I thought I might get a second job as well.” He explains. “I’m not getting much with being the town’s blacksmith anymore, and I thought that it might be a good idea to get a second job along with it.”

Tony nods, folding his arms across his chest. “Well, I’m sure that I can find something for the both of you to do round here.” He says, before turning to James. “So, Bucky. You ever worked in a place like this?” He asks.

“Yes. I have worked at a place like this before, but it wasn’t for very long.” James nods. “But I’m sure once I start working that what I need to do will come back to me.”

James is certain that as soon as he starts working at the tavern, that he’ll remember what to do and how to run the place at least. Though, he  _ did _ only work at one for a couple months, so there could be the chance that he’s forgotten how these type of places usually run. Especially when he never really went inside one in his free time, mainly because he found it pointless, and he didn’t have anyone to go for drinks with. Though, aside from that, he  _ has _ been inside a lot of taverns over the years, but it was never on the occasion of drinking, more or less to find somewhere to rest for a couple days before moving out again, or to get something to eat.

“Alright.” Tony nods. “That’s good enough for me. I’ll try and work something out for the both of you, and if you come back in a couple days, I should have something worked out for the both of you.”

“Thank you, Tony.” Steve says, before he’s turning to James. “You want a drink before we get a few things from the market?” He asks.

James shrugs. “I wouldn’t mind one.” He says, before he’s grabbing some cash out of his pocket. “I’ve got a bit of cash on me, so I don’t mind paying.”

Steve shakes his head. “You don’t have to.” He starts, but James cuts him off.

“Steve.” James sighs, shaking his head. “You’re letting me stay with you at your house. The least I can do is pay for our drinks.”

Steve goes to protest, but the look James sends his way, is enough for him to shut up. “Fine. alright. You can pay for the drinks.”

Nodding, James turns to Tony, who was still standing there behind the bar watching them. “We’ll just get two of whatever Steve usually gets.” He says, not really caring himself what the drink is.

Not long after that, the two of them are making their way over to an empty table to sit at to drink their pints of beer, when someone calls out Steve’s name from across the room. James looks over at Steve curiously, trying to figure out whether or not the both of them are going to go over to whoever it was that had called out his name.

“That sounds like Clint.” Steve states, looking around to find Clint Barton sitting over at one of the tables with his wife Natasha. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to Clint and his wife, Natasha.”

James follows close behind Steve, as the two of them make their way over to the other side of the room, where a man and a woman sat together watching them.

“Hey, Clint. Hey Natasha.” Steve says, once he and James have sat down on the two vacant seats. “This is James Barnes, or Bucky.” He introduces them to James. “Bucky, this is Clint Barton, and his wife Natasha.” He indicates to the man and woman in turn.

“It’s nice to meet you.” James says, shaking both of their hands.

“So, what brings you to this little old town, Bucky?” Clint asks.

James shrugs at that, quickly thinking up some excuse to why he’s in this town. There’s no way he’s going to tell them the truth. “Just travelling around, I guess.” He says. “Steve found me asleep in his barn a couple nights ago, and now he’s giving me a place to stay for awhile as long as I help him round on his farm.”

Thankfully neither Clint nor Natasha don’t ask anything more on the matter, and James just sits back on his seat, sipping at his drink. He has to say, it’s not a very good drink, but he doesn’t really drink much to begin with. It’s just not his style. Though, every once in awhile he thinks he could possibly get used to. Just as long as he doesn’t have too much to drink anyway.

For the rest of the morning, James and Steve spend the majority of it in the tavern talking with Clint and Natasha, before the two of them eventually say their goodbyes and head on out to the markets. James was a little disappointed at that he has to admit. He wouldn’t have minded staying in the tavern for a bit longer chatting with Clint and Natasha, they seem like nice people after all. But he and Steve have to get some things from the markets before they head on back home.

Though, James sure has enjoyed the day out in town. Especially since Steve has shown him around the place, even showing him his blacksmith's shop that he works at with Clint and another guy, Logan, who James has yet to meet. He guesses that he’ll meet this Logan guy in a couple days at least.

He’s only been in this town for three days now, and he already doesn’t want to leave it. But James knows that eventually he’s going to have to move out of this town, and when that happens, he’s sure going to miss Steve. He hasn’t known him for long, but there’s just something about Steve that James feels himself being drawn to, and he has no idea what it is. Whatever it is though, it’s sure to make it difficult for him to bring himself to move out of this town when the time eventually comes.

For now though, James is just going to make the most out of staying in this town. Until it’s time for him to pack up his belongings and leave. But just  _ maybe _ he can stay in this town for quite some time before he has to leave.


	7. VI - Getting This Growth Spell Going

It’s been about a week now since Steve had found James in his barn, and so far, James living with them has been pretty good. Though, there’s still the whole issue about Elizabeth and Grace not trusting the man, which Steve is hoping that eventually his daughters will become somewhat trusting of James. If James is going to stay with them for awhile, then he wants his daughters to get along with James.

Which is why today, while Steve has to go into work at his blacksmith's shop, he’s hoping that Elizabeth and Grace are able to take that time to get to know James. Maybe when Elizabeth and Grace go out apple picking with Natasha Barton, James can go with them. Steve’s going to have to talk with James about that before he heads on off to work.

The problem is though, Steve can’t seem to find James anywhere in the house at all. It’s like he just, disappeared into thin air. _Maybe he’s already moved on from this town?_ Surely not, since it’s only been a week. But Steve does remember James telling him that he doesn’t like being in one place for very long. Though, surely he wouldn’t have left already after only a week?

Shaking his head, Steve feels as though he’s being stupid. James is probably just outside somewhere, enjoying the morning air. Yeah, that’s probably where James is at right now. It seems more ideal anyway, as Steve doubts that James would’ve left after only a week. Especially not since he’s got his own job here at The Howling Wolf tavern.

Well, wherever James is at right now - which Steve is really hoping he’s just outside somewhere, possibly in the barn as he’s noticed that he tends to go out there often - that he’s okay. He’s probably okay of course, but for some strange reason that Steve cannot quite place, he honestly hopes that nothing bad happens to James. In the week that Steve has known James, he’s come to really like the guy and all the mysteriousness surrounding him, and he’d hate to see him get hurt.

So wherever James is right now, Steve can only hope that he’s not in any trouble whatsoever.

Luckily for Steve, James is still lurking round the property, and hasn’t had any reason to move out of this town yet.

Over in the barn outside, James sat on one of the haystacks flipping through his spellbook as he tries to find the spell he’s looking for. The spell to make the gardens grow, but over a period of time, so it’s not too suspicious that the garden is just suddenly growing very well overnight. He should really start to memorize a lot more spells than the ones that he’s already got memorized, and unfortunately the spell that he’s looking for isn’t one of the ones that he’s already got memorized. To be fair though, he’s only really used this specific spell once before.

“Where is it…” James trails off, flicking through the pages of his spellbook.

He _knows_ the spell is in there somewhere, but considering how big his spellbook is, he cannot recall what page the spell he is searching for is on. All he knows, is that it’s round the middle of the book somewhere, but exactly what page, that information has frustratingly left his mind right at the precise moment he needs it.

If there was ever contests held for the best witches in witchcraft, James knows that he definitely would place nowhere near first place. He definitely doesn’t class himself as an extremely good witch, but he doesn’t exactly class himself as the world's worst witch either. He supposes he’s just any old average witch really, nothing special.

It’s just a good thing he’s a good enough witch to hide in plain sight, and good enough to hide his witch ways. Well, most of the time anyway… Of course there’s a couple times he has been found out, but he’s left those towns long behind him. There also was his pirate days where they found out about his witch ways, but they didn’t care so much about him practising witchcraft. He was rather surprised by that, but to be fair, they’re outlaws just as much as he is, so it shouldn’t have really came to too much of a surprise.

Finally after what felt like hours, James let’s out a noise in success, as he finds the spell that he’s searching for. Just _hopefully_ he remembers how to execute it correctly so it works gradually overtime to not cause suspicion around him. At least the spell isn’t too complex.

Now, all he’s got to do, is figure out how to do this without Steve noticing… That might end up being a little difficult to accomplish, so maybe he should wait till tonight to put the spell into work? Or maybe he can attempt to do it right now while he has the time.

Running out of the barn, spellbook under his arm, he looks around for any sign of Steve or his daughters. Thankfully he doesn’t spot them anywhere and he suspects that they’re still inside as it’s still in the early hours of the morning. Maybe he can make it over to the garden without them spotting him and getting curious about what exactly he’s up to.

Quickly and quietly, he runs over towards the garden, thankful that it’s not really in full view of the house, and that Steve isn’t already out there doing a bit of early morning gardening. Now the last thing he needs is for Steve to be out in the garden and catch him out on all of this. Though, he supposes he could always make up some lie about what he’s doing if Steve were already out there, but then there’s still his spellbook that he’s carrying, and he has no idea how he’ll explain that to Steve.

Sitting down on the grass next to the garden, he opens the book back up onto the page with the spell and reads through it. “Okay, Barnes. You’ve done this before, so you should be able to do it again.” He mutters to himself, as he reads through the instructions a couple times. “It’s not too difficult… I think.”

He glances behind him, making sure no one is coming towards him. Thankfully there’s no one walking over in his direction, and it seems that Steve and his daughters are probably still inside, so he should be able to get this done without them finding out.

After thinking it over and reading through the page more times than he really needed to, he stands back up, spellbook in hand, as he looks out over the garden. The spell should _hopefully_ cover all of Steve’s garden. It did cover all of Mr. Murphy’s garden when he did it to his garden without his or his wife’s knowledge, but they didn’t have as big of a garden that Steve does. So all James can do, is hope that the spell will cover all of the garden.

Carefully, he begins chanting out the spell, making sure that he’s using the right one so it doesn’t make everything grow strong and healthy all in one hit, but over a period of time. He think’s it’s around a month maybe that it should start to show it’s full progress. He’s sure that’s usually how long it takes anyway.

Once he’s done everything that he had to do with the spell, he looks over his shoulder once more, not seeing Steve or his daughters anywhere. He just hopes that they were all inside while he was doing all of this.

Quickly, he decides to head on back over to the barn to put his spellbook back into his hiding spot before heading on back inside. Taking one look over the garden, he runs back over towards the barn.

*******

“Morning, Bucky.” Steve greets, as James makes his way through the front door. “Where’d you go on off to?”

James looks over at Steve, as he sat on the sofa getting his boots on. James vaguely remembers Steve mentioning to him yesterday that he has to go into work at his blacksmith’s shop today, so he guesses that that’s what Steve is getting ready for right now.

“Just went outside for a bit of fresh air is all.” James says, walking over and sitting down on the sofa next to Steve. “So, you off to work right now, then?”

Steve nods, looking over at him. “Yeah.” He says. “By the way. Natasha Barton will be here at around midday to take Elizabeth and Grace out apple picking.” He starts. “I was hoping that you wouldn’t mind going along with them. Maybe get to know them a little while you’re at it. If you’re going to be staying with us for awhile, I want Elizabeth and Grace to be able to get along with you.”

Nodding, James looks down at the floor. He does want to get to know Steve’s daughters, and he supposes going apple picking with them and Natasha Barton might be a good chance to get to know them both. It also gives him the chance to get to know Natasha more.

“Of course.” James nods. “I’d love to go out apple picking with them.”

Steve smiles at that, nodding also. “Thank you.” He nods, getting up off the couch. “I should probably head on out now.” He says. “The girls should be up any minute now. Just let them know I’ve gone off the shop already.”

James nods, following Steve to the door. “Be careful, aye?” He says, finding himself not wanting Steve to get hurt. He cares about that man, and would hate for Steve to get hurt.

Steve turns to him, smiling at that. “I will, don’t worry.” He says. “I’ll be back later!”

With that, Steve is off walking towards the main pathway to get into town. James looks on after him for awhile longer, a small smile lingering on his face, before he’s heading back inside.

Leaning up against the door, James closes his eyes before covering his face with his hands. He never expected this to happen, but slowly he’s finding himself falling for the man that’s giving him a roof over his head. And it's only been a week since he's been here.

James is slowly falling in love with Steve Rogers, and he has no clue how that even happened. Though, the man is very nice, and James has to admit that he _is_ rather good looking. But James never expected that he’d be slowly falling in love with the guy.

He knows it’s wrong for him to fall in love with another man, but that doesn’t really bother him. He’s seen it happen before, but only rarely and he’s often noticed that a lot of pirates tend to have relations with each other since there’s no women aboard the ship and they have needs just like any other guy.

The thing that is bothering James about him slowly falling for Steve, is that he had promised himself that he’d never fall for anyone no matter what. With what he is, he doesn’t want to get anyone hurt because of it. He doesn’t want to get anyone killed because he’s a witch. But now he’s found himself slowly falling for Steve, and that was never supposed to happen.

_This is going to be a problem..._


	8. VII - At Least Try...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this chapter being late! I ran out of pre-written chapters, as I can never seem to write enough of them. I've also kind of been binge watching LOST lately, and looking for a job, so that plays into the lateness of this chapter. Plus, I've been trying to get some chapters done for some other stories of mine.
> 
> I may have to extend the updating schedule for this story to sometime in November if I can't get it all posted by the end of October.
> 
> Also, this chapter and the next one were meant to be one whole chapter, but I didn't want to make it too long.

Just as Steve had said, James finds both Elizabeth and Grace getting up not long after he had left for work. Though, both girls seemed to have made a point to avoid interacting with James this morning by the looks of it. James would be lying if he said he didn’t find that rather disappointing, as he for sure would love to get to know the both of them if he’s to stay here longer than he already has. But it seems that they don’t want to get to know him, which he’s disappointed with.

Really though, there’s not much he can do about it except try, which he  _ is _ going to do, but even then, they may not let him try. Still, it’s worth a shot to see if he can get them to at least try to get along well with him, if not for them, but for their father, Steve.

Maybe things might work out a little better whilst they’re all out picking apples with Natasha. That is,  _ if _ Elizabeth and Grace actually want him to go with them anyway. James rather doubts that they’ll want him to go with them, but he has a feeling that Natasha will be cool with it, and will probably talk Elizabeth and Grace into letting him go with them.

Though, when they actually go out picking apples, James has no idea what to expect with that. Things might go well, or things might go all wrong. He’s hoping nothing bad happens. Well, he’s sure nothing bad will happen, but there’s always the chance that something will go wrong.

James sighs, shaking his head. He worries way too much, nothing bad is going to happen. Everything is going to be fine. Though, James can’t bring himself to believe that everything will be just fine, even though he know that everything will be fine. For now at least.

“Bucky?” James looks up as he hears his name being said, to find Grace standing there.

“Yes?” He asks. “What do you need?” He gives her his full attention, willing to help her out with whatever it is that she may need right now.

She sits down on the sofa next to him, and hands him what appears to be a dress, and at first James is confused to why he’s been given the dress, until he notices the tear in the material. 

“Would you like me to fix your dress for you?” He asks, to which Grace nods. “Okay.” James smiles kindly. “Do you have any sewing supplies here?” He asks.

Grace nods, before she’s getting up and running over to one corner of the room, where James assumes the sewing supplies are. She runs back over once she’s found them, and hands them to James.

“Thank you.” He nods, taking the stuff from her. “Now, I can’t promise that it’ll look absolutely perfect, but I’ll try my best, alright?” He warns her. He’s never really been the absolute best with sewing up stuff, but he’s not out right terrible at it. He’s had to sew up stuff before, so it’s not something that he’s never done before.

“That’s okay.” Grace says, as she sits back down next to him.

Nodding, James gets to work on sewing up the tear in the dress. Thankfully the tear isn’t too big, so it’s not too difficult for him to fix, or to make it look tidy. He would’ve used his magic to make it look good as new, but he doesn’t want to risk it, especially not when Grace is sitting right next to him, and when Elizabeth is standing on one side of the room watching them closely.

James knows that Elizabeth doesn’t trust him at all, and that seeing Grace sitting with him right now is probably putting her on edge. But, Grace had asked him to help her sew up the tear in her dress for her, and of course he’s going to help her. He’d love for both girls to be able to be good around him, and trust him enough for their father’s sake, but at this rate with Elizabeth, that’s probably not very likely. With Grace, maybe, but it’s not looking very likely with Elizabeth.

“There we go.” He states, once he’s finished sewing up the tear. “All done.” He says, handing the dress back to Grace.

“Thank you, Bucky.” She says, before getting up and running off with the dress, presumably to her room.

James looks on after her, before he’s getting up also to put away the sewing supplies back where Grace had grabbed them from. As he does that, he glances over at Elizabeth to find her still watching him carefully. He’s not quite sure what her problem is towards him, apart from what Steve had told him about her being untrusting of strangers after what happened the last time, but aside from that, he’s got no clue. He does wish that she’d at least try and talk to him though. If he’s going to be staying with them, then he at least wants both Elizabeth and Grace to be able to talk with him.

Then again, maybe she’s doing the right thing with not trusting him considering what he is. But she doesn’t know what he is, and it’s ultimately better that way, for everybody. But apart from that, James would like her to be able to actually get along with her. Grace seems somewhat willing to, but Elizabeth might need a bit of patience.

“Why is it that you’re really here?” Elizabeth suddenly asks, walking over to him.

James looks over at her in surprise. “I’m just passing through.” He says. “And, your father offered me a place to stay if I help out around here for awhile.”

He’s aware of what she’s trying to do. She’s trying to get him to give her answers, ones that he cannot give her, about what the reason is to why he’s come to this town. Well, it really wasn’t this town exactly he had planned to come to, he just needed to leave his previous town, and this one will have to do. He can’t explain that to her, and the reason he had to leave that last town.

Elizabeth nods, walking over to him slowly. “And, how long are you planning on staying with us exactly?” She asks.

“That, I don’t know.” James says. “I haven’t figured that part out yet. Though, seeing as I’ve got a job in this town now, I’ll probably be staying for awhile, just till I’ve got enough money to move on again.”

He supposes that’s a good enough plan, though he’s got no idea how long it’ll last. Just as long as no one finds out about him being a witch anytime soon, then he’s all good. Maybe he can even end up staying in this town, and find himself his own little house to live in so he doesn’t have to stay with Steve and his daughters. He feels as though Elizabeth would prefer it that way, he’s not too sure about how Steve or Grace would feel about that though. But he supposes Steve would want what’s best for his daughters.

“By the way.” James starts. “Your father wanted me to go with you and Grace when you go apple picking with Natasha Barton.” He explains. “I believe he wants me to spend some time with you and Grace to get to know you both. I certain that he’s wanting the two of you to get along with me if I’m going to be staying here for awhile.”

Elizabeth looks away at that, shaking her head a little. “I can’t promise that I can trust you, but if it will make my father happy, then I’ll at least try to get on with you.” She says. “And, yeah. You can go apple picking with us, I guess.”

James nods, a small smile appearing on his face. He guesses that’s better than nothing, and he understands that she may trust him still, he doesn’t expect her to become trusting of him straight away. But at least she’s going to try and get along with him. James feels as though that’s all that matters. He still doesn’t know her or Grace at all yet, and they don’t know anything about him either. In fact, he still hardly knows anything about Steve, just as Steve barely knows anything about him. Though to be fair, he’s only been staying with them for about a week now. That’s not really that long of a time to know someone inside and out.

But a week certainly appears to be enough for James to find himself falling for Steve. He’s still not quite sure how that happened, and he knows that nothing is going to come out of it. Plus, he doubts that Steve even feels remotely the same way towards him. But he still can’t help himself from falling for the man that he barely knows anything about.

_ Maybe there’s a spell in his book that he can use to erase his feelings that he’s slowly growing towards Steve? _ James finds that rather unlikely. Though, he supposes it wouldn’t hurt to look even though he knows there’s most likely not one in there at all.

In the end, James supposes that he’s just going to have to figure out a way to ignore these feelings that he has for Steve. Maybe by the time he goes to move onto another town these feelings will be gone and he won’t need to worry about them anymore. Though really, James has the slightest feeling that what he’s feeling towards Steve may still be there by then, and there’ll be nothing he can do about it, and he’ll find that he can’t ignore these feelings. No matter how hard he tries to...


	9. VIII - Apple Picking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I am very sorry for the extremely late chapter. I'll try and get the next one up sooner, I promise.
> 
> Also, I didn't mention the last time Natasha showed up in this, but she's got blonde hair in this, not red. I have to admit, I like Natasha with blonde hair, and I'm excited to see her as a blonde in Infinity War.

As soon as Natasha Barton had turned up at the house around midday, both Elizabeth and Grace were ready to head on out to go apple picking. James was ready to go also, and after a bit of talking with Natasha that Steve had suggested that he goes with them, the four of them are off, going out to the town garden.

James has to admit that he was surprised by the amount of fruit trees and vegetable plants in the town garden. But the thing he found himself the most surprised by, is that once every few weeks, the townsfolk are allowed to fill up a cloth bag with as many fruit and vegetables as they can for a certain amount of money. He’s never been to a town that has this setup before, and he actually finds it to be a rather decent idea to do, especially for the people that don’t have enough money to buy that much food.

Following behind the girls, James and Natasha make their way over to one of the trees and start picking apples and storing them into their cloth bags. James has to admit that he’s not really a huge fan of apples, but he’ll eat whatever he can get, seeing as he barely has much money. Though, he’s already gotten a decent pay from working at The Howling Wolf tavern a couple days ago now, so that’s nice.

But hopefully they’re going to be able to pick a few more different fruit and vegetables and not just apples. He assumes they are, even though Steve had just said that they were to go out apple picking. It would make sense for them to be able to pick more than one type anyway. Though, he supposes he might as well check with Natasha to make sure.

“Hey, Natasha?” He asks, looking over to the blonde, who was standing on her tippy toes to reach up and grab an apple off the tree.

“Yeah, James?” She asks, looking over at him.

“We can pick more than one type of fruit or vegetable, right?” He questions.

She nods. “Yeah, we can.” She says. “Just as long as you only fill up one bag each.”

James nods in relief at that. He wasn’t really too keen on picking  _ just _ apples, so the fact that they can pick more than one comes as a relief to him. Though, as he looks around the garden, it doesn’t seem to look as though there really is that much different fruit or vegetables that are growing. But, there looks to be enough to choose from. 

“We also get a pumpkin each if we pay extra.” Natasha adds. “But I don’t usually worry about getting a pumpkin, as Clint and I aren’t really the biggest fans of pumpkin.” She says. “Though, we’ve got a small pumpkin patch back at home that grows quite well anyway, so we don’t bother.”

“Alright. Well, I might just go and have a look at what else there is.” James says, after picking a couple apples off the tree.

Natasha nods, before she’s walking off over to another area also to pick more fruit to add to her cloth bag. He also notices that Elizabeth and Grace have both wandered off to a different area also with their cloth bags, so seeing that the girls are occupying themselves with the fruit and vegetable picking, James heads on over to a different tree, and picks a couple pieces of fruit off of that.

James isn’t really too sure on what exactly he’s wanting to pick, so he just wanders around the garden, picking whatever fruit or vegetables he finds that he happens to like. There’s not a very big selection though. But he’s sure he can get enough to fill up his cloth bag, seeing as though the bag is rather big, and he’s sure he can fit quite a few things inside it. Granted he doesn’t grab too much of one thing…

The four of them meet back in the middle of the garden once they’ve all filled their cloth bags with plenty of fruit and vegetables. James has to admit, he’s rather pleased with the amount that he managed to pick, and he’ll be happy to give it to Steve and his daughters as a thank you for letting him stay with them. Whatever he can do for them to make it easier for them to deal with him staying with them for however long he may be there for, he’ll do it.

“I think this is us all done, don’t you think?” Natasha asks, looking around at the four of them.

The girls both nod, grabbing their bags off the grass, before the four of them are all heading off back home.

James has to admit that he really enjoyed going out apple picking with the girls, even though it wasn’t actually just apple picking - which he’s glad about. He’s definitely interested in doing this again. Well,  _ if _ he’s still in this town by then of course…

Other than that though, James definitely had a good time, and would definitely do it again do it again.

********

Later on during the evening, Steve finally returns home to find James and the girls sitting together on the floor by the fire. The three of them look as though they’ve managed to get along just fine with each other, and Steve can’t be any more happy about that. He was definitely hoping that the girls would manage to get along with James while the guy is staying with them, and to come home from work at the blacksmith's shop to find the three of them sitting together on the floor by the fire, definitely makes Steve rather glad that they’ve managed to get along.

Somehow, there is something else that Steve is feeling at the sight of James Barnes sitting on the floor with his daughters by the fire, but whatever it is, Steve isn’t too sure if he should be feeling this way at all. What he’s feeling towards James, isn’t exactly something that people like very much. He shouldn’t be feeling this way towards the guy who he’s only just met about a week ago. And especially not feeling this way towards a  _ man _ . He also doubts that James feels the same way. Though, there’s a lot of stuff that he doesn’t know about the guy, so there could be the chance he does, but Steve highly doubts it.

Walking over to the sofa, Steve pulls off his boots and just lays back on the sofa. As he’s doing so, he notices James watching him with some emotion that he can’t quite tell. Though as soon as James notices that Steve had caught him staring, the emotion disappears off his face as if Steve had just imagined it.

“How was work?” James asks, from where he sat by the fire with the girls.

Steve shrugs. “It was okay I guess.” He says. “We don’t really get that much people that come in wanting tools sharpened of weapons of some sort made anyway.” He sighs, before sitting up, looking over towards James and the girls. “How’d the apple picking go?”

“It went good.” James says. “Though, it wasn’t really  _ just _ apple picking. Seeing as there was a bunch of different fruit and vegetables of which you failed to mention.”

Steve laughs a little, shaking his head. “Yeah, sorry about that.” He says. “How much stuff did you manage to bring back?”

“More than I thought we would.” James says, getting up of the floor and stretching his arms up in the air.

All of a sudden, James’s mood changes and he walks over towards the front door. “I need to go out for a walk.” He says, before exiting through the door. Leaving Steve, Elizabeth and Grace sitting in the main room of the house in confusion.

Steve looks on after him, confused on what just happened, before turning to the girls. “Did something happen while I was gone?” He asks.

Both the girls shake their heads, not knowing what caused James’s sudden mood change.

Sighing, Steve sits back on the sofa. Maybe James just needs some fresh air and time to himself, and there’s nothing wrong. He’ll probably be back inside in a bit anyway, so there’s probably nothing to worry about. Or, at least Steve hopes there’s nothing to worry about anyway…

Outside, James finds himself setting off in a run towards the barn. He needs to have some time by himself to clear his mind and he can’t really do that when he’s in the same house as Steve and the girls. Especially the same house as Steve considering these feelings that he’s growing towards the guy. The feelings that he shouldn’t be having for anyone.

Sitting down on one of the haystacks, James covers his face with his hands. He’s still unsure of what to do about all of this, and whether or not he should just pack up all of his things and just leave this town before everything begins to go all wrong,

The problem is, he really likes this town, he if he has only been living in it for about a week now. He doesn’t want to leave so soon, and especially not when he’s got barely any money. Though, he’s survived on no money at all before, but he’d still rather not leave without a decent amount of money, especially not since he’s got a job here now.

Well, whatever happens, he just hopes that it all turns out fine in the end. But of course, nothing ever turns out completely fine in the end...


	10. IX - Unknown Feelings

“Girls, Bucky and I have to go out to work at the Howling Wolf tonight, and we won’t be home until later.” Steve starts, walking into the main room of the house, where the girls are sat in front of the fire, and James is sat on the sofa seemingly staring off at nothing in particular. “Elizabeth, I’m putting you in charge.”

“Yes, papa.” Elizabeth says.

Steve nods, before looking over at James. He has to admit that James is a rather, odd fellow, and there’s still many things that Steve doesn’t know about him. To be fair, James has only been with them for a couple of weeks now, but in those couple of weeks, Steve has noticed a few strange things about him. He’s rather quiet too, and is often going out for walks around the farm.

Well, Steve supposes that that’s not too odd, but there’s just something about James that Steve isn’t too sure on. There seems as though there’s something that the guy is hiding, and that he doesn’t want anyone to find out about.

Of course, Steve isn’t about to go and ask James about it, he’s allowed to have his secrets. But it doesn’t make Steve any less curious about whatever it may possibly be that James is hiding.

“Bucky?” Steve asks, getting his attention. “Are you ready to head out soon?”

At that, James looks up at him, shaking his head. “Y-yeah. I’m ready to head on out soon.” He says, sounding as though something is bothering him. “We walking there, or taking the horses?”

Steve has to stop and think about that. “I guess we could walk there.” He decides. “It’s safe enough.”

Usually they’d take the horses into town to get to work, especially at the hour of the night that they’ll be returning back home. But the town is fairly safe enough to walk in during the night. The town isn’t known for high levels of crime, and everyone is friendly enough to each other, so there won’t be much trouble walking back in the dark.

James nods, getting up off the sofa, and stretching his arms up in the air a little, before he’s walking over to Steve. “If you’re sure it’ll be safe enough, then okay.” He says.

James has to admit, he’s not too convinced that it’s very safe to walk back from the tavern in the dark. He hasn’t been in this town for very long to know for sure, but he’s going to have to take Steve’s word for it. After all, Steve has lived here in this town for years. At least, James is assuming he has…

“I’m just gonna go outside for a bit.” James decides, heading over towards the front door. He doesn’t really have a need to go outside, but it’s getting a little too warm inside for him.

“Alright.” Steve nods. “We’ll head on out to the tavern in about half an hour.”

James nods, before exiting out of the house.

As soon as he’s outside, he’s not sure what to do with himself. Though the chill air is a bit more his style than the heat from the fire in the fireplace inside. James doesn’t like being too warm, he’s found that he likes the cold a little more than the heat. He’s not entirely sure why, he just does.

Walking over in the direction of the barn, James decides to check if his things are still in there or not. He’s sure that his things are most likely still in there, but seeing as though he’s got a bit of trust issues, he doesn’t exactly believe himself all that much when he tries to convince himself that his things are still there. Even when they’ve been there for a couple weeks now without anyone moving them at all.

Sighing in relief as he finds his things still hidden away where he left them out of sight, he jumps down off the ledge, landing on his feet on the ground. Or, almost on his feet. Laying back on the hay that he’s landed on, he just stares up at the ceiling.

“Ow.” He mutters, not really fancying getting up just yet, as he just lays there.

Finally, he sits up, looking around at his surroundings. The two cats that live in the barn had come out of their hiding spot, curious to see what had just happened, but they don’t come near James, they just stay a good distance away from him, watching him.

Getting up, he shakes all the hay off of him, finding a large clump stuck in his hair which he manages to dislodge easy enough. There’s probably a bit more hay than that in his hair, but he’ll get them out eventually.

Fixing up his clothes, he makes his way out of the barn. The sun would be setting in a couple hours. But unfortunately he won’t be able to watch the sunset. Watching the sunset has became something that James enjoys doing, especially ever since he came to this town. But seeing as he and Steve has work at the Howling Wolf tonight, he won’t be able to watch the sunset. There’s always tomorrow night though.

Glancing over at the house, James feels a sort of tugging in his heart, telling him to go back inside to Steve. So far, he has been able to keep his feelings for Steve hidden, and ignore them as much as he can, but at times when he’s alone, he just can’t stop the feelings from resurfacing.

He’s attracted to Steve, and has been slowly forming feelings for the guy that are more than just friendship. But he knows fully well that he’ll never be able to get that with Steve. Or anyone for that matter. But that doesn’t seem to be stopping him from feeling this way towards the guy.

Eventually, James heads back on over to the house to find Steve just exiting and about to head on over to him.

“You ready to go?” Steve asks, looking James up and down, noticing that his clothes look a bit of a mess and he has a bit of hay stuck in his hair, but he doesn’t mention it to James.

James shrugs, “I guess so.” He says, before the two of them are off into town to work their shifts at the Howling Wolf for the night.

**********

All while Steve and James are busy with their shifts at the tavern, Steve can’t help but glance over towards James every so often. There’s just something about him that Steve finds himself interested in, but he knows that nothing will ever be able to come of it.

Though, every so often when Steve looks over towards James, he can’t help but notice that it seems as though the guy is almost keeping an eye out for something or someone inside the tavern. Steve isn’t sure why he’d need to, as there’s surely nothing that James has to worry about.

But then again, considering the fact that Steve barely knows anything about the guy, and has no idea where exactly he came from, seeing as each time he attempts to ask, James has either told him that it doesn’t matter, or he goes quiet before leaving the room to not come back till a couple hours later. There may possibly be some dark secret that the guy is hiding.  _ Maybe Elizabeth is right when she says that she doesn’t trust him? _

Or maybe Steve’s just being silly about it all, and that James isn’t keeping a lookout for someone, and is just looking around the place. That’s probably it.

“You good, Bucky?” Steve asks, as he walks over to the side of the shelf behind them both closest to James to grab something off the shelf.

James looks over at him, shrugging. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He says, and Steve could’ve sworn he saw a small smile playing along James’s lips. But as soon as it’s there, it’s gone as James turns around to serve a customer that looks as though he may have had a bit too much to drink already.

Steve doesn’t stay staring a James for too long, as he’s called over to serve another customer. But after he’s served the customer, he glances back over at James. He seems to look as though he knows what he’s doing, so steve takes that as a good thing. Though, bartending isn’t too difficult, especially when the place is surprisingly not very busy for a change.

For the rest of the night, the two of them continue on working through their shift, till it’s time for them to head on back home. Back on home for a much needed sleep, seeing as Steve still has to go into work again in the morning at the blacksmith’s shop.

James on the other hand though, is planning on doing a bit of gardening in the morning, and then maybe he’ll go over a few of his spells seeing as he’ll be the only one home tomorrow.

For now though, all the pair of them are going to do, is get as much sleep as they can before they need to get up again in the morning. 


	11. X - The Garden Is Growing Well, And Steve Doesn't Suspect Any Witchery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this fic might actually end up having less chapters than I first intended on it having...
> 
> Also, since I didn't get it all completed in the time frame that I said I'd try and get it finished in, I'm going to try and get this updated every second day. If not, it should hopefully be finished by early December.

To say that Steve was surprised to see how well the garden was doing one morning while he and James went out to do the gardening would be an understatement. But after the initial shock of how well the garden had been growing lately, Steve declared it as a good thing for them and that things may just start to get better around here.

James on the other hand, was mainly just glad that Steve’s straight thought that witchcraft was into play with this, and then put two and two together and blame him for it. Though, James was actually a little surprised to see that the spell put everything to work faster than he had expected it to. He was sure he was fucked at that point, but Steve didn’t seem to grow at all suspicious about it.

Unless of course he  _ does _ have some suspicions, but just didn’t want to tell them to James. There’s always the chance that that’s the case. James certainly hopes it’s not the case though.

“Today has certainly been a good day for gardening.” Steve states, as they set what fruit and vegetables down on the table that they had managed to pick. “I can’t believe how lucky we’ve been with gardening lately.” He then looks over at James, smiling at him. “You must be some good luck. Might need to keep you around here for awhile.”

James smiles, shaking his head a little. Steve cannot know the real reason to why the garden has been growing so well these past few days. He can’t know that it’s the result of witchcraft, he just can’t.

“Well then, maybe I might just have to do that.” James says, as they sort through the fruit and vegetables to decide what to cook up for dinner. “We still going out to the markets in a bit to get some meat?”

Steve nods. “Yeah, in a bit.” He says. “Though, I’ve got to head on out to the Howling Wolf tonight, can you watch the girls?”

“Of course.” James nods. “When will you be returning back here?”

Steve shrugs. “I’m not sure. Probably early in the morning, Tony didn’t say how many hours I’ve got tonight when I was talking with him yesterday.”

James nods. “Well, that’s not very helpful.” He chuckles.

“Yeah, it’s not really.” Steve agrees. “But I don’t mind.” He shrugs. “I like working there.”

James has to agree with Steve on that. He’s found himself enjoying working at the Howling Wolf tavern. Maybe even more than he had initially thought he would. And the other people who work there are nice too, which James is glad about. He’s not sure if he would’ve enjoyed working there as much as he already does if the other workers weren’t very nice.

“I agree. I like working there too.” James says. “Surprisingly more than I thought that I would.” He admits. 

Steve nods in agreement. “You hungry?” He asks. “I can see what there is that we can make before we head on out to the markets to go buy some stuff.”

James nods. “A little.” He says, leaning against the table. “You need any help making something for us to eat?” He asks, needing something to do right now, and helping Steve make food for the both of them sounds like a decent thing for him to do right now.

“Nah. I’m all good here.” Steve says, shaking his head. “You just go sit down, and I’ll let you know when the food is ready.”

James can’t help but sigh a little at that. Whenever he offers to help Steve with cooking, Steve always turns him down, and tells him to just go sit down.

He supposes that Steve thinks he has to do that, as James is a guest in this house. Which James appreciates, he really does. In fact he appreciates all that Steve has done for him so far. But it doesn’t mean he can’t be a little annoyed that Steve won’t help him with the cooking whenever he offers.

“Come on, Steve.” James sighs. “I don’t mind helping you with the cooking.” He says. “I don’t want to just sit around while you do all the cooking round here. I got to pay you back in some way for the hospitality you’ve given me these past few weeks.”

“It’s fine, Bucky.” Steve waves him off. “I like cooking, and I’m perfectly okay with cooking us up something to eat while you just go sit down.” He says. “Tell you what.” He starts, before James could even start to argue. “I’ll let you cook dinner for us all later on, if you go sit down and wait while I finish up here.”

James is quiet for a bit, thinking it over. He doesn’t really want to just sit around and wait right now, but he’d also be happy to cook dinner tonight.

He supposes waiting until later on to cook dinner for them and the girls is probably better than nothing.

“Fine.” He sighs, shaking his head a little. “I’m cooking dinner tonight.” He says. “But you’re not helping.”

“Fair enough.” Steve laughs, shaking his head. “Now just go sit down.”

“Okay, okay.” James says, walking off in the direction of the sofa. “Look, I’m going to go sit down now.”

As James makes his way to the couch, he can only just here Steve laughing to himself, and he can’t help but smile at that. He honestly can’t believe how fast he’s managed to become friends with Steve, when they’ve only known each other for a few weeks now, maybe close to a month. It almost feels like they’ve known each other forever.

But even though James has managed to become good friends with Steve, he still doesn’t quite trust the guy. He certainly doesn’t trust him enough to tell him that he’s a witch, and he doesn’t think that he’ll ever tell him.

Neither is he sure if he’s going to tell him how he’s been feeling towards him. Though, it’s still probably a bit early to know if these feelings that he’s been having towards Steve are true, or if they’re false. He might need to wait a bit longer before he ever goes to admit those -  _ if  _ he ever tells that to Steve that is. He may tell him one day, but right now, it’s just his little secret.

One thing is for certain though, James definitely will not be telling Steve that he’s a witch. He doesn’t even know how Steve would react to that news, and he’s not so sure if he even wants to find out.


	12. XI - The Troubled Minds Of Barnes And Rogers

Months have passed by since Steve had caught James sleeping in his barn, and so far, James is still staying with them. And for now, Steve is still unaware of James’s witchery.

James is content on leaving it that way. He doesn’t see the need for Steve to know anyway, and especially not when it could end up with him getting killed. James definitely does not want any blood on his hands.

So far, things have been going very well for James, Steve, and Steve’s daughters, and James is happy living with them. But, he knows that he shouldn’t overstay his welcome with the Rogers’s family, and should probably find himself his own place if he chooses to stay in this town.

The thing is though, James likes staying with Steve and his daughters very much, and he almost doesn’t want to leave anytime soon. He’s not too sure if Steve wants him to leave or stay either, and what the girls would rather is quite conflicting. They still don’t trust him very well, but they’ve been getting along with him for their father’s sake.

James is fine with the girls only tolerating him for the sake of their father, but he’s worried that they may become a little suspicious and want to search through his stuff to figure out exactly who he is. Even though he’s still got all his things safely hidden away, he doesn’t doubt for a second that Elizabeth and Grace won’t go searching for it and find his spellbook and all his other belongings.

It’s things like this where James wishes that witches were able to live in peace with everyone else. Most of them don’t do anyone any harm. Most just want to live peacefully amongst others. _Stupid rules making that witches are to be burned at the stake or hung by the neck at once after they’re discovered._ James absolutely despises that rule, and wants to see it gone.

He’s not trying to hurt anyone, so why does he have to be executed for practising something that he loves? Even though he doesn’t really like staying in the same place for very long, he also doesn’t really like the fact that he has to leave to stop people from finding out that he’s a witch.

At this point though, he’s used to it. Running from the law and people that want him dead, he’s used to it. He’s lived that way since he was a young boy, and even more so after he was left on his own after his mother was killed when he was only thirteen.

Right now though, he’s just hoping that he can stay in this town for longer than he already has. Hes come to like this town, and doesn’t want to be leaving it anytime soon. But there’s always the chance that someone will figure out that he’s a witch. In fact, someone is certainly going to find out eventually.

Maybe this time if someone catches him, he should just let them kill him? He’s tired of running, and he can’t imagine giving up on his witchcraft, so maybe this time he should just give up once he’s been found out?

It’s always been something that James has considered, giving up as soon as he’s been found out, but he’s never had the guts to actually do it. But maybe this time he’ll end up going through with it? He has no idea. Though, being hung by the neck until dead is no fun at all. Neither is being burned at the stake, which he’s thankfully never had to deal with before, and it’s not really the way that he fancies dying.

Actually, he just doesn’t fancy dying at all, but he _is_ considering just giving up and letting them take him the next time he’s found out for his witchcraft. Simply to just end all this moving around because he’s been found out. Though, he probably won’t even go through with it if he’s being honest with himself.

There’s still one thing he’s got no idea on whether or not he’s going to do anything about though. The fact that he’s fallen for Steve. James has fallen for Steve, and he knows it. But he can’t bring himself to tell Steve about it. With good reason though, as two guys being lovers isn’t exactly very accepted, and he doesn’t even think that Steve feels the same way at all. James highly doubts that Steve feels anything more than friends for him, and James fears that if he were to tell him about his feelings, then Steve will throw him out.

Even though, James doesn’t want to stay living with Steve and his daughters, he doesn’t fancy being kicked out over feelings that he has for him. And he likes having Steve as a friend, so he doesn’t want to potentially lose Steve’s friendship over telling him that he’s fallen in love with him. He’s already bound to lose Steve’s friendship after Steve eventually finds out about his witchery anyway.

But James doesn’t exactly want to keep hiding these feelings from Steve. He wants to be able to tell him eventually, as there may be a slim chance that Steve _does_ in fact feel the same way. James highly doubts that he does, but there’s always the chance that he does. Except, he’s afraid to find out…

**********

Steve’s begun to notice that James has been acting a little odd lately. But considering James is already a rather mysterious and odd fellow, he’s opted to not look into it. He feels as though it’s none of his business anyway, so why try and get James to tell him what’s wrong?

But, something has been troubling Steve for a few days now. These feelings that he has slowly been developing for James, are still there, and don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

Though, he has to admit, that he doesn’t mind these feelings, despite how wrong they are. He almost wants to do something about them, but doesn’t believe that James feels the same way. Plus, Steve feels as though James is planning on leaving this town soon, so there’s probably no point in doing anything about them.

Then again, he probably could still tell him, in the hopes that if he feels the same way, then he might chose to stay here. But Steve doesn’t want to end up scaring him off out of here quicker than James is planning on leaving.

The front door opening catches Steve’s attention, and he looks up from where he sat on the sofa, to find James walking inside. He looks tired, so Steve assumes that he just got home from working at the tavern.

“You okay, Bucky?” Steve asks, moving around on the sofa so James can sit down next to him.

“Just tired.” James yawns, sitting down next to Steve. “Even though I love working there, dealing with drunk people is just the worst.” He sighs. He goes to say something else, but quickly stops himself from saying whatever it was, and shakes his head.

Steve nods. “You’ve got that right.” He places a hand on James shoulder, patting slightly, before removing his hand.

“N-no.” James suddenly says, grabbing onto Steve’s hand before he could move it away completely. “I, kind of like that.” He says, finally looking over at Steve, before moving closer to him, still holding onto his hand.

“You sure you’re okay?” Steve asks, eyeing James closely, and wrapping an arm around James’s shoulders, which causes him to instantly lean into the hold.

James sighs, shaking his head. “I don’t know.” He sighs, resting his head on Steve’s shoulder.

Steve’s not sure how, but this feels right to him. Having James this close to him just feels, right. The only other person this has ever felt right with, was Peggy. But she’s gone now, killed two years ago now, and even though Steve misses her very much, he’s got to move on from her eventually. She would’ve wanted him to be happy anyway.

Without thinking, Steve pulls James closer to him. “I think I’m falling in love with you.” He breathes, not realizing he said it until it's too late.

He feels James tense up in his hold, before he’s turning around to face him, surprise evident on his face. And quite possibly something else too. _“Wh-what?”_


	13. XII - So Wrong, It's Right

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've decided that this story will not have smut in it, so time to change the tags up slightly. If there were to be smut, it would've probably been in this chapter, but seeing as smut isn't really something that I really enjoy writing, I decided to just not add it into this story. Smut isn't something that this story absolutely needs anyway.

James couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Steve just said that he’s falling in love with him? Even though that’s something that James has been secretly waiting to hear from Steve, he still finds himself shocked by Steve’s admission to him. It wasn’t something that he was expecting to hear from Steve at all, and he thought he’d be the one to end up admitting that to Steve, not the other way around.

Though, James can’t complain. This is exactly what he was hoping for, albeit not the way he was expecting.

But. could they actually have a relationship together? Can James be in a relationship with Steve, without ever confessing to him that he’s a witch? James doesn’t think he can, so maybe he should just leave this place now before he ends up getting Steve and the girls hurt somehow?

The thing is though, James doesn’t think he has the willpower to just up and leave this place just yet. He likes it here, and he doesn’t want to leave anytime soon.

“I’m sorry.” Steve starts, shaking his head, removing his arm from around James. “Just pretend I didn’t say anything.” He says, getting up off the sofa.

James watches on after him, his gaze not leaving Steve for a second. He’s still trying to process the fact that Steve has feelings for him just as he does for him. But he’s not too sure if they could possibly be more than friends.

He supposes they could try though, despite himself not knowing if he could possibly not tell Steve about the fact that he’s a witch. But it could be dangerous. He doesn’t want Steve, Grace, or Elizabeth getting hurt because of him. He won’t be able to live with himself if they were to get hurt because of him.

“Steve.” James starts, standing up slowly and making his way over to him. “I, uh… What if I don’t want to forget about it?” He asks. “I feel the same way.”

Steve stops at that, his mouth hanging open as he stares at James. _He feels the same way…_ They _both_ feel the same way towards each other. Now this, Steve wasn’t expecting. But, he likes it.

“Y-you do?” He asks.

James nods. “Yes.” He says. “But, I don’t think most people take very kindly to, well, two men loving each other.” He sighs.

Steve nods, sighing, as he walks closer to James. “That’s true, but I don’t care.” He says.

James looks up at him. “You don’t?” He asks. “I mean, I don’t care either. I’ve been around men that have had sexual relations with each other before - admittedly I’ve been in a couple myself - but, are you sure you don’t care?”

“I’m sure.”  Steve nods. “I don’t care.”

Even though James is glad that Steve doesn’t care, he has to admit that it takes him by surprise that he doesn’t care. He’s definitely thankful that this doesn’t seem to look as though it’ll end their friendship though. But if Steve knew that he’s a witch… Now that’s a whole other story…

But Steve doesn’t care that most people aren’t okay with two men in love with each other. That’s all James needs to know regarding that.

James himself doesn’t care, seeing as when he was a pirate for a few months, a few of the men around him would engage in sexual relations with each other. He would too sometimes. In fact, he was specifically the captain’s favorite. He didn’t mind being the captain’s favorite. His captain - Captain Jack Sparrow - was pretty good looking anyway, and he rather liked it.

James didn’t really do it with any of the other crew mates though. He mainly thinks it was because most of them ere scared of him, considering he’s a witch. He didn’t mind though, not many of the crew were as good looking as Captain Sparrow anyway.

“So, what now?” James asks, as the two of them stand in the middle of the room, awkwardly staring at each other.

The two of them have no idea what they’re supposed to do now that they both know they both have shared feelings for each other. _Should they give being together a shot?_ Steve feels as though he is willing to try. But James? Even though he’s willing, he’s afraid of Steve and the girls getting hurt because of him.

If Steve, Grace, or Elizabeth were to get hurt, it would be all his fault. Without them knowing, James would’ve gotten them involved with his witchery, and if he’s ever found out to be a witch, they’d get in trouble for allowing a witch to live in their home. James doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want them to get in trouble because of him.

“Do you want to... _try_ us being together?” Steve asks, taking a few steps closer to James.

James looks away at that, not sure on what he wants. He feels conflicted. _Should they try?_ He has to admit that he wants to. Oh, he definitely wants to, and the fact that Steve does too makes him all the more willing to try. But he also doesn’t want to. In fear of them getting hurt because of him.

“I don’t know, Steve.” James sighs, shaking his head. “I would love to. It’s just that, I uh...” He trails off, not really sure what to say without giving away that he’s a witch.

Though, James supposes it won’t hurt to admit to him that he was a pirate for a short amount of time. He’s not one anymore, so maybe Steve would be okay with the fact that he used to be a pirate. Even if it was only just for a few months.

“I don’t want you or your daughters getting mixed up in my past.” James sighs. “I was a pirate for a few months some years ago now, and I don’t want to risk you and the girls getting caught up in that.”

Steve is quiet for awhile, and at first, James is worried that admitting that to Steve was the wrong thing to do. For all he knows, pirates might be the reason that Steve’s wife had died.

“You were a pirate?” Steve asks.

James nods. “Yeah.” He says. “A pirate’s life, wasn’t really for me though.” He shrugs. “It was fun, but in the end, it wasn’t for me.”

Steve nods, not necessarily bothered by the fact that James was a pirate at one point. Even though pirates are bad, Steve doesn’t mind them so much. He’s even had a few dealings with pirates before, and would make and sell swords to them. He’s never been a pirate himself though, and he doesn’t plan on ever being one.

“I’ve had a few dealings with pirates before.” Steve says. “Mostly making and selling swords to them. I don’t really do it much anymore though. They don’t really give enough money for swords.”

James nods, sighing in relief that Steve doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that he was formerly a pirate. “I’ve got to agree with you there.” He laughs a little. “Pirates _really_ don’t pay enough money. But, they never really have much money in the first place. Only what they manage to steal, really.”

Steve nods. “I guess you’re right there.” He says, before shaking his head a little. “Now, what are we going to do about, _us_?” He asks. “Do you want to…?” He trails off, not exactly sure what to say.

He knows that if he and James were to do something about their feelings towards each other, it’s going to cause a few problems, as their relationship would be rather frowned upon. But he honestly doesn’t care so much. He doesn’t exactly care what others will think.

Though, the only people’s opinions that he _would_ care about regarding this, is his daughters. Elizabeth and Grace’s opinions on the matter are the only ones that he really cares about. And he’s hoping that they wouldn’t care too much. But considering Elizabeth doesn’t appear to trust James still, only tolerates him, Steve doubts he’ll get a very good opinion about it from her. Grace on the other hand, seems to like James, so she may have an okay opinion on the matter. Steve can only hope at least.

James is silent. He wants to try, but at the same time he sort of doesn’t. He doesn’t want them getting hurt because of him.

Though, him wanting to try outweighs him not wanting to try. He can always figure out a spell to keep Steve and the girls safe somehow. He’s not exactly sure what the spell would be, he’ll have to go and look through his spellbook. But he supposes that they could at least try.

“Yes.” He nods, walking closer to Steve. “We can try.”

All Steve does is smile, before pulling James in, and kisses him. The action surprises James at first, but he’s quick to melt into the kiss, and wrap his arms around Steve’s shoulders, as Steve wraps his arms round his waist, pulling him closer.

Kissing Steve feels right to James, and he almost doesn’t want to stop, though, they have to pull apart to breath. Much to James’s disappointment.

The two of them rest their foreheads together, keeping ahold of one another as they stand there in the middle of the room. The both of them make no move in pulling away from each other as they just stand there together, enjoying each other’s hold on each other.

James has never had this before, and he likes it. He likes being in Steve’s arms like this. He already likes kissing the guy, even if that was only just their first kiss. He already quite likes it, and he’s definitely willing to do it again.

Not even an hour later, and James and Steve find themselves cuddled up together in Steve’s bed in his room. James has his head resting on Steve’s chest, while Steve’s arms were wrapped loosely around James’s waist.

James definitely finds himself liking this. Being in Steve’s arms, feels right to him. It would definitely look wrong to some people, but to James, it’s _right_. It feels so wrong, that it’s right, and he doesn’t want it to go away anytime soon.

“How are you going to break this to your daughters?” James murmurs after awhile. He doesn’t want to break the mood, but it had to be asked. Steve _will_ have to tell his daughters eventually after all.

“I don’t know.” He sighs, having little to no idea of how to break this to the girls. He’ll have to tell them eventually, but he doesn’t know when or how. “I _really_ don’t know, Buck.” He says, glancing down at James. “Maybe in a few weeks we could tell them.”

James nods. “Just whenever you’re ready, aye?” He asks, moving around till he’s looking up at Steve. “But for now though.” He says. “This is good.” He murmurs, pressing his lips to Steve’s in another kiss.

And both James and Steve are most certainly finding their current situation, _very_ good.


	14. XIII - It's Just A Matter Of Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for going MIA with this story for a bit _(honestly though, it's not the longest amount of time I've not updated before)_ , and not updating it as often as I said I would. Hell, this fic was meant to be finished at the end of October! But I promise I'll try and get this finished asap.
> 
>  
> 
> _BTW, kudos to anyone who catches the little reference to The Hobbit in this_
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I've just now decided that Steve's daughters in this are a younger Elizabeth Olsen and Mckenna Grace, cause why the hell not? That's how I've been imagining them while writing this.

A month has past since Steve and James had confessed their feelings to each other, and so far they’ve managed to hide it from the girls and everyone else in this small town Steve calls his home. Though, the two if then are beginning to think that the girls may suspect that something might be going on.

Though, both Steve and James have talked it through, and they’ve decided that they both want to tell the girls about them. They don’t really want to keep this hidden from the girls for much longer anyway. They just hope that Elizabeth and Grace will be okay with it.

Now how they’re going to tell the girls, they aren’t entirely sure, but Steve had suggested that they all go out horse riding as a family. James had agreed on the idea, saying that his horse, Agatha, would enjoy going out for a ride. She hasn’t really been off the property all that much, so going out for a ride is sure to do her some good.

So, just as soon as both the girls wake up, they’ll have something to eat, and then get the horse's ready so they can go out for a horse ride.

They’re not sure where exactly they’ll be riding to, but they know that they’ll try and have a good time together. Steve is sure they will anyway. At least, a good time until he and James tell the girls about them…

He doesn’t want to think about what his daughters may possibly say about him and James being together just yet though. He doesn’t want to think about it until it’s time to tell them. He just hopes that they’ll be okay about it.

“Do you think your daughters will be okay with _us_?” James asks, catching Steve’s attention. “I mean, they don’t exactly like me all that much.” He points out.

Steve sighs, shaking his head. “I really don’t know.” He shrugs. “I don’t really think they’re both still quite over their mother’s death.” He says. “Though, I don’t blame them. I still miss Peggy a lot, but she’s gone now, and she’d want me to move on. Not sure what she’d think of me moving on with another guy though.”

James nods. “Well. let’s just hope they’ll be okay with it.” He says, trying to convince himself that everything will be fine for now, and they’re both just being paranoid.

Though, James knows for a fact that once Steve finds out that he’s a witch, that things won’t be fine then. At all. Steve is sure to do something about it once he finds out that James is a witch.

“All we can do is hope.” Steve sighs, sitting back on the sofa, while James move closer to him a little and rests his head on Steve’s shoulder as Steve wraps an arm around his waist. “All we can do is wait and see until later on when we tell them.”

James nods, as he just sits back with Steve on the sofa. The two of them dreading what is to come, but it’s something that they have to tell the girls. No matter what their reaction is…

**********

Not too long after, Elizabeth and Grace had woken up, and Steve and James had filled them in on the plan for the day. And it's safe to say that they were both up for going for a horse ride. Especially Grace.

Elizabeth on the other hand, even though she seems excited, James suspects that she's got some suspicions on why exactly they're suddenly going out for a horse ride today. James supposes that s has every right to be suspicious, seeing as they're not _just_ going out to ride the horse's.

He and Steve have decided to tell her and Grace about them, and they're both worried about what Elizabeth and Grace's reaction will be. James is trying to convince himself that it'll all be okay in the end, but he rather doubts it.

Steve though, even though he too is worried about what'll happen next, he's not as worried as James is. He has a little hope that his daughters will be fine with this, but the fact that they don't exactly trust James still, is making him doubt that they're reaction will be okay towards this.

“Alright.” Steve starts, as they all walk their horse's out of the stable. “We all set?”

Elizabeth and Grace nod, as they sit together on the back of their horse, a small gray mare, that would be too small for either Steve or James to ride, but just the right size for both Elizabeth and Grace. Steve doesn't quite trust Grace to be able to ride a horse by herself, so usually she rides with him or Elizabeth.

“Yeah.” James says, as he gets up onto his horse, running his fingers through her mane to calm her.

He hasn't really taken Agatha out for a ride in awhile, and she seems to be a little restless and ready to just run on out across the grass. But as he runs his fingers through her mane, she calms down a little. He would whisper a calming spell into her ear, but he doesn't want to expose himself as a witch to Steve and his daughters, so running his fingers through her mane is going to have to do for now.

“Alright then.” Steve nods, getting up onto his horse, a black and white stallion, who seems to be quite a bit larger in size than Agatha and the horse Elizabeth and Grace are riding.  “Let's go then.”

And so, they're heading off out of the property, and down the road to wherever they feels is far enough. They never exactly decided on where they'd ride the horses to, that part of their day out, they elected to just decide while they're out riding. Though, James guesses that wherever they choose to go, that it's some place away from the town. Just so they can tell the girls about them in peace.

As they've reached the outer edge of the town, James looks around through the trees as they pass them. He's not too sure what he's looking for, maybe other witches that are hanging round the area that he happens to know somehow, though, he really only knows a few, one being his aunt Nadia.

He doesn't like to think of his aunt Nadia though. She's the reason his mother was found out as a witch and was executed. Nadia betrayed her own sister, James’s mother. He hasn't seen Nadia in years though, but he knows she's still alive out there somewhere, and he doesn't want anything to do with her. She's no family of his, the treacherous wrench. The next time that he sees her, he's going to kill her, and no one will stop him from doing so.

Looking behind him through the trees as he could've sworn he saw someone standing in them watching him, he contemplates going to investigate, but he notices that Elizabeth is watching him from where she band Grace are riding their horse behind him. Maybe he can always go out again later to investigate.

“You okay, Bucky?” Steve asks, catching his attention.

James sighs, shaking his head. “I'm fine.” He says, looking behind him through the trees once more. “I just thought I saw something through the trees.”

“It's Beorn.” Steve says. “Half man, half beast. He lives a few miles west from here.” He explains. “It's best not to worry about him and to just leave him be though. He's not too fond of strangers. Though, the man _can_ be friendly, the beast is unpredictable.”

James nods. He's heard stories of a man who's half beast living in the woods. Though, he never knew which woods, and he always thought it to be an old folk tale, a myth. Not a real man. Though, it really shouldn't come as shock to him that the man is real, considering all the shit that he's seen.

“He won't follow us then?” James asks, glancing back behind himself through the trees. “He won't do us any harm?”

Steve shakes his head. “There's an agreement between him and the town.” He says. “We won't kill him, just as long as he doesn't bother us, and stays away from our little town.”

James nods, a little surprised that the townsfolk allows the man, Beorn, to live a few miles outside of their town, so long as he stays away and does them no harm. He would've thought that they would've killed him to stop the possible danger from the beast. Though, he supposes that allowing Beorn to live, is a much nicer option than just killing him.

James doesn’t say anymore on the topic of the half man, half beast, Beorn, and neither does Steve, as they continue on riding through the grass. They don't quite know where exactly they're riding to, but James kind of hopes that it's both to far away.

Then again, the more time they spend riding to get to wherever they're off to, gives him more time to think over at he might possibly have to do if Elizabeth and Grace's reaction to him and Steve being together is a bad one.  He does hope they're reaction isn't a bad one though, as he doesn't want to have to leave this town. He's grown rather fond of it, and it'll be hard for him to move away from it.

Not long after they've been travelling for a while, Steve stops, saying that this area they've stopped at is a good rough area to stop in and just spend time together. It's far from the town so noons will be able to come across them, and it overall just looks like a nice area to spend some time together. And so Steve and James can tell Elizabeth and Grace about them,

Obviously telling them is going to be a rather difficult situation, but both Steve and James feel as though now is a better time than any other, and that they should tell them before they end up finding out for themselves. They’re not sure how they’d react if they were to find out themselves, but they don’t want to take the risk, and it’s better to hear it from them anyway.

Once James has settled Agatha down enough to not wander too far from them - thankfully able to whisper the spell into her ear without Steve or his daughters noticing - he sits down on a large rock overlooking a river just beyond the borders of the trees they’ve stopped by. He has to admit, that this place _is_ quite nice, and he may have to take Agatha out for more rides out here often. He’s sure he’ll remember the way to and from here the next time he decides he needs some alone time. Well, he _hopes_ that he will anyway…

Looking behind him, he sees that Steve is helping Elizabeth and Grace off their horse, before the three of them are making their way over to James.

“Your horse's going to be okay not being tied up?” He asks, looking over at the horse's to see that they’re not tied up. Though, neither is his.

“They’re good horses.” Steve nods. “If they wander, it won’t be too far.” He says, before looking over at James’s horse. “Will your horse be okay?”

James nods. “She’ll be fine.” He says. “I don’t really like tying her up so she doesn’t wander off. I know other people do that, but I don’t like doing that. And she doesn’t really wander off by herself.”

Steve nods, sitting down on the grass next to the rock that James is sitting on, while Elizabeth and Grace walk off towards the river.

“How are we going going to tell the girls?” James asks, looking over to where the girls are both standing barefoot in the river, before looking down at Steve.

Steve sighs, shaking his head. He has no idea how they're going to break it to the girls, but they have to know about it.

“Maybe we should just outright say it.” James suggests. “Just get it over with.”

He's not sure if that's the best way to go about it, but it seems like it would be the easiest way to go, and to get it over with quickly. But, maybe they shouldn't just tell the girls they're together just like that. Though really, what other way is there to tell them?

“That's probably the easiest way to go.” Steve sighs, shaking his head. “We've got no other ideas of how to tell them, and just outright saying it to them sounds like the quickest way to tell them.”

James nods, agreeing with Steve. “Now it's just a matter of time till we do tell them.” He says. “Should we wait a bit longer, or tell them now?” He asks.

“How soon do you want to get it over with?” Steve asks. “Cause, I'm kind of wanting to get it over with soon.”

“Better now than never then?” James asks, kind of just wanting to get this all over and done with soon just as Steve  is, but at the same time, he’s rather afraid if what Steve’s daughters will say about it. They don’t really trust him after all, so that’s bound to cause some issues.

Looking over towards his daughters, Steve nods. Now is a better time than never to tell them. He just hopes that they're reaction won't be too bad towards it. Surely it won't, as he's their father, but the girls - mainly Elizabeth - don't trust James all that well…

“Yes.” Steve nods. “It's now or never.” He says, before standing up. “Here goes nothing.” He breathes, before walking down to the edge of the river, while James stays seated on the large rock up shore.

Neither Steve nor James know exactly how they're going to break this to the girls, but it has to be done.

“Elizabeth, Grace.” Steve starts, catching both girls attention.

“Yes, papa?” Grace asks, making her way over to him with Elizabeth following behind.

Steve takes in a deep breath, glancing over at James to find him staring down at the grass. He turns back to his daughters, who are waiting to hear what he has to say right now.

He sighs, shaking his head a little, and practically forcing himself to talk. “Girls.” He starts. _“We need to talk…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this slightly longer chapter makes up for me not updating this frequently.
> 
> Also, I'm really tired, and it's way too hot right now... It's way too hot to get anything done and sleep, jeesus fuck. _Reasons why Candy hates summer..._


	15. XIV - Hoping For The Best

James sits up on the shore on the rock watching as Steve fetches his daughters, Elizabeth and Grace, so they can tell them about them being together. He's got no idea how this is going to down, and he's afraid that the girls might not be okay with this. If they're not, he can easily leave to find another town.

Except, he doesn't want to find another town. He very much likes it here, and he'd like to stay here forever if he could. But it's only a matter of time before something goes wrong. Unfortunately for them all, today might just be that day if the girls aren't okay with him being with their father....

If they are okay with it, then they don't have anything to worry about with this whole situation. But there's still the chance of things going wrong for all of them. If his secret gets out, then he's a dead man, and this time, he may just give up and let them kill him. He's tired of running, and just wants somewhere he can call a home permanently.

Getting lost in his thoughts, James doesn't even notice Stevce and the girls walking over to him, until Steve takes his shoulder lightly once they get over to him.

Shaking his head, he looks up at them. "We ready?" He asks, standing up.

Steve nods, before the four of them go sit up on the grass near the trees.

Neither of the men know how to tell the girls about them, but they've got to tell them now before they find out themselves. Steve really doesn't want the girls to find out for themselves, and would rather tell them himself. James on the other hand, just wants to get it over with.

"Girls." Steve starts. "James and I, we have something to tell you, but we're not sure how well you'll both take it." He says.

"Father, you can tell us." Elizabeth says, sensing her fathers nervousness about the situation.

But, James notices her cast a glance over in his direction suspiciously. He knows that she doesn't particularly like him still, but she's managed to get along with him as best as she can for Steve's sake.

Though, James is almost certain that she's highly suspicious of him, and that she thinks he's up to something. Luckily for them all though, he's not up to something. Just hiding the fact that he's a witch from them.

Looking over at Steve as though he seems to be at a loss for words, James sighs and turns to the girls. Supposing that he should tell them, seeing as though Steve doesn't appear to be able to find the words.

"Elizabeth, Grace." James starts, looking over to the girls, then back to Steve who's now watching him. "Your father and I are together." James says, grabbing a hold of Steve's hand, before turning back to the girls. "And have been for about a month now."

Both girls are silent as they look between both James and their father. The pair of them not sure on what to say to what they've just been told.

James notices Steve looking anywhere but at his daughters, and he gives his hand a reassuring squeeze. Though, it didn't really seem to do much to calm Steve's nerves. But James doesn't blame him for being nervous about this all. His daughters now know that he is with him, and they've yet to say anything to either of them about it.

"Father?" Elizabeth finally asks. "Is what James is saying true?"

Steve sighs, nodding his head. "Yes, it is." He says.

"But, what about mother?" Grace asks.

"Your mother is dead." Steve sighs, shaking his head. "She would've wanted me to move on from her eventually."

"With another man?" Elizabeth asks. "Father, is this even allowed?"

Both Steve and James look between one another. The both of them aren't entirely sure if it is allowed, all they know is that it's wrong and frowned upon. But there isn't anywhere to say that it's not allowed. James has been around relations like himself and Steve before though. He was technically in one during his time as a pirate, but it was really more or less sexual relations with the captain.

"We're not entirely sure." Steve says. "We know it's considered wrong and frowned upon, but there isn't exactly anywhere that says it's not allowed."

"It's kind of common in pirates." James says. "Seeing as there's usually never any women aboard the ships and the men have needs." He explains.

Elizabeth looks over at him curiously. "How do you know that?" She asks.

"I was a pirate a few years back for a couple months." He says. "I was, kind of in a, well, sexual relation with the captain during my time as a pirate."

Steve turns to James. "You were in sexual relations with your captain?" He asks, a little surprised at that as he had never mentioned that to him. "You never mentioned that before."

James shrugs. "I didn't really think it needed to be mentioned." He says. "And, my captain was fairly good looking."

They all fall silent after that, no one really knowing what to say, the girls especially not knowing what to say about their father and James being together. Both of the girls had a feeling that there was something that their father wasn't telling them, but they didn't expect it to be this. They weren't really expecting him to be with the new comer, James Barnes, but it seems like he is now, and they don't really know what to say about it.

"I guess this is okay." Elizabeth starts. "It _is_ a little weird. But your our father, and we still love you." She says, looking over at Steve, before turning to James. "I still don't trust you though."

James nods, completely understanding that she still doesn't trust him. The fact that he basically admitted to her that he used to be a pirate a few years back probably didn't help with her not trusting him either. But what's done is done.

"Fair enough." He nods, before looking over at Steve. "You okay?" He asks.

Steve shrugs, before looking over at James, smiling a little. "I'm fine." He says. "Well, now I am anyway." He them turns to his daughters. "Thank you both for being okay with this."

Both girls nod, before moving closer to Steve and hugging him.

James sits back, smiling as the girls hug their father. He's glad that the girls are okay with all of this, even though Elizabeth still doesn't trust him. He's not too sure if Grace trusts him or not though, but she does seem to like him, so he's going to take that as a good thing.

"Welcome to the family, Bucky." Grace says, taking James by surprise as she hugs him tight.

Smiling down at her, he hugs her back. Looking over at Steve, he smiles more, as he realizes just how much of an impact Steve and his daughters have made in his life. He realizes just how lucky he was to have met them, and that hurts the most.

They don't know about his secret, and when they do find out, everything is just going to go all wrong from there. He doesn't want to get them involved with it, but from the moment he had stopped to rest in Steve's barn, was the moment he had gotten Steve and his daughters into this mess.

He has no idea of how long it'll last until they ultimately find out about his witchery, and what'll happen once they do find out. For now though, he supposes he could stay here, until then, and as soon as they know, he'll leave and never come back. Or, he'll just let himself be captured and executed.

He likes it here too much to leave right now, and he's just going to wait it all out for a while longer. He's tired of running after all, and he's going to make the most of it here, before his time is up.

But the question is, how long will it all last before it all falls apart, and his time here has come to an end?

 


	16. XV - Rumours... That's All They Are

A couple months have passed since Steve and James had told the girls about them, and so far things are going well. Or at least better than they'd hoped it would. Luckily they've managed to hide their relationship from the public. They're not ready to face that yet, in fact, they're not quite sure they'll ever be ready for that.

Though, they're not sure how long they can keep this secret from the rest of the town. They're sure it'll be easier than it was hiding it from the girls though. But they're still not sure how long they can keep it hidden. Thankfully both Elizabeth and Grace have promised not to tell anyone though.

Currently, Steve had to go into work at his blacksmiths shop while James gets to stay back home with the girls. Luckily it's his night off at the Howling Wolf, as Steve doesn't really like leaving the girls home alone unless he has to. It's not like the girls will get into any trouble if they're home alone though, and Elizabeth is responsible enough to look after herself and her sister anyway.

"Hey, Steve." Clint says, catching Steve's attention. "You hear about the witch that's supposedly wandering around near the town." He asks.

Steve looks over at him, stopping what he's doing. "There's another witch round here again?" He asks. "When was it spotted?"

Clint shrugs. "Don't know." He says. "I just heard rumours of a witch wandering the forest near the town." He shrugs. "It's just rumours though, Steve. I know how you feel about witches after what happened to Peggy and all..." He trails off.

Steve sighs, shaking his head. His wife, Peggy had been hexed and killed by a witch two years ago now. But, the witch responsible had fled before she could be executed. Ever since then, Steve has never liked witches, or well, has hated them more since then. And he's vowed that if he's ever to see another witch, then he's going to kill it. Especially if it's the one that killed his wife.

"If it's the one that killed Peggy, then I'll be the one to kill it." He says.

"What if it's not?" Clint asks.

"I'll still kill it." He decides. "All witches deserve death."

Clint nods. "Well, it's all just rumours so there may not even be a witch." He says. "But it be best to watch out either way."

Steve nods. Like Clint is saying, it may very well just be a rumour that there's a witch roaming round the forest near the town. But if it's not and there really is a witch, then he's going to kill it. He's not sure how he'll kill it exactly, but he'll find a way.

**********

As soon as Steve gets home after work, he finds James sitting on the floor by the fire with the girls. So far Elizabeth hasn't really grown to like James, but she _is_ beginning to tolerate him, and Steve guesses that's better than nothing. Grace on the other hand, already loves James.

"Hey, Steve." James says, as Steve sits down next to them, placing a kiss on James's cheek, before hugging the girls. "How was work?"

Steve sighs, shaking his head. "It was... good." He says.

But Steve is sure that James can sense that there's something wrong. And there _is_ something wrong, but he can't tell him what it is while the girls are in the same room as him. He's going to have to take James outside and tell him.

"Bucky, I need to talk to you alone outside for a minute." He says, getting up off the floor.

James watches him curiously, before he too is getting up and the two of them are off outside. Once they're outside, Steve sighs, leaning up against the wall with James standing in front of him.

Steve isn't entirely sure what to say, but James should know that there's a possible witch roaming round through the forest. He'd hate for James to get hurt.

"What's wrong?" James asks, eyeing Steve carefully. "Did something happen at the shop?"

Steve sighs, shaking his head. "No, not really." He says. "It's just something that Clint had told me."

That gets James's attention. Has the town somehow found out about him and Steve? Or has he been found out that he's a witch? He's not entirely sure which would be worse, but he's betting that him being a witch would be worse than the townsfolk finding out about him and Steve. What would make it even worse, is if Steve gets in trouble also for harbouring a witch.

He should've left this town when he had the chance. He doesn't want to get Steve and the girls involved in his witchery. But it seems like he may already have, depending on what Steve's got to say.

"What did Clint tell you?" He asks, fearing the worst, and he's sure that Steve can almost sense his growing worry about this.

"He said there's rumours of a witch wandering the forests near the town." Steve says.

James freezes at that. "A-a _witch_?" He asks. "Is he sure?"

This is what James has been fearing would happen eventually, and now it seems as though his time is up. And he's got three choices; run, hide, or die. And maybe this time, he'll choose death. He's tired of running and hiding, so he might as well just give up this time.

Steve nods. "Yeah." He says, before walking closer to James, taking his hands in his own. "Don't worry though, as soon as I see that witch. I'm going to kill it." He assures him. "It'll all be okay once the witch is dead. _If_ there really is one of course."

But nothing Steve is saying assures James that everything will be okay. All it does to him, is make him feel sick. What Steve is saying is proof enough that he doesn't like witches, and wants them all dead, and that makes James's stomach churn with dread.

Pulling his hands from Steve's grasp, he backs away from him slowly. "D-does the witch really need to be killed?" He asks, his eyes wide.

Steve looks at him in confusion. "Well, yes. They're evil, James." He says. "A witch had hexed and killed my wife. That's what caused Peggy's death. And ever since then, I've sworn to kill any witch that I find."

"You're a witch hunter then?" James asks, fearing that he's been living with a witch hunter and never even realized it.

"Well, no. not exactly." He shakes his head. "There haven't exactly been that many witches who come through this town since Peggy's death to class me as a witch hunter."

James nods slowly. "But, you've killed witches before?" He asks.

"Only a few over the past couple years." He admits. "Still not the one who killed Peggy though. She fled before anyone could kill her."

Nodding, James looks behind him over towards the barn where some of his stuff like his spell book are still hiding. After hearing this he most definitely hopes that Steve hasn't found his stuff before now.

But what if Steve knew from the very beginning that he's a witch, and all this time he was just waiting for the right time to kill him? What if what they have together means nothing to him?

"Bucky, are you okay?" Steve asks, walking closer to him.

But James backs away from him more, before spinning around and making a run for the barn. He knows he had decided on death this time around, but now all he wants to do is get as far from here as possible.

This action leaves Steve confused, before he realizes why James would act like that. The man that Steve has been allowing to live with him and his daughters, _and_ the man that he's developed a relationship with, is a witch. And after all this time, Steve never even realized it. Though he supposes it would explain why the garden has been growing so well lately.

"James, wait!" Steve calls, running after him.

As soon as he steps foot into the barn though, he's faced with James grabbing all his belongings out of wherever it might've been that he had hid them in here, before he's getting ready to leave. Oddly enough, despite the fact that he's something that Steve had sworn to kill, he doesn't find himself wanting to kill James.

"Move!" James yells. "Just let me leave, and no one needs to get hurt." He pleads. "Please, Steve."

Steve shakes his head, walking closer to James. He doesn't want him to leave, and neither does he want to kill him. But before he can tell James this, he's being flung across the floor by some invisible force, some spell that James had cast by the looks and sounds of things.

"I'm sorry, Steve." James chokes, before he's running out of the barn.

Except, he doesn't get very far as he falls to the grass clutching his head, while yelling in pain. Someone has cast a spell on him, probably that witch that Steve said is supposedly wandering through the forest near the town. Though, as he looks around at his surroundings, he doesn't find anything. It doesn't help that his vision is going fuzzy.

 _James_. He hears the faint whisper in his head through the pain. But that voice, he'd no that voice anywhere. Even after not hearing it for many years...

" _Nadia._ " He growls, looking up through his currently blurry vision to see a figure moving towards him.

And he knows _exactly_ who it is....


	17. XVI - Revelations

“Nadia.” James growls, trying to stand up while fighting off whatever spell Nadia has put on him.

He’s been waiting for the day that he’d see his aunt again. He’s been waiting to see her for years now, so he can finally kill her for the death of his mother. Though she may not have been the one that physically killed her fifteen years ago, she _did_ play a part in her death. And James sure as hell blames her for his mother’s death.

Managing to overcome the spell that she had put on him, his vision returns, and he stands glaring at her. She still looks exactly how he had last saw her, having found a spell that keeps the youthful look and all.

“James what a pleasant surprise to find you here.” She says. “I haven’t seen you since your mother was executed.”

James doesn’t say anything, just stands there staring at her. The hatred he has for this woman standing in front of him would be pretty clear to anyone, and all he wants to do to her, is kill her. Get his revenge for his mother’s death.

The only problem though, is that Nadia is so much more powerful than he himself is. But that’s not going to stop him from killing her, even if it kills him in the process.

“You don’t seem happy to see me.” Nadia comments, walking just a little closer to James.

“Tell me. Why would I be happy to see the woman who betrayed her own kin?” James asks. “ _You_ got my mother killed. _You_ betrayed your own sister!” He shouts.

His bag dropping to the grass, James does quick movements with his hands, causing a gust of wind to blow towards his aunt in an attempt to knock her over. But in one swift movement she’s blocking his hit, and sending one towards James.

Luckily though, James knew what she was going to do, so he’s quick to dodge the hit, and send another back at her. This time making her stumble back, and James takes the chance to send another hit her way, causing her to fly right into one of the hay barrels.

Inside the barn behind where the confrontation between James and his aunt is going down, Steve groans as he regains consciousness, rubbing at the back of his head as a dull throb is felt.

He sits up, looking around the inside of the barn. He doesn’t find James in there anywhere, which begins to make him assume that he’s already fled. But as he hears a commotion outside, he gathers that he’s still here.

Getting up slowly, he makes his way out of the barn, finding James sending a woman flying into one of the hay barrels. Though, as Steve notices who the woman is, his blood literally starts to boil with rage.

The woman who James had sent flying, is the witch who had killed Peggy. And it seems that James is familiar with this specific witch.

“Steve!” James shouts, looking over his shoulder has he hears someone approaching him. “Get out of here, now!”

But Steve just ignores him, and goes straight towards the witch. Wanting to end the wretched woman’s life at once, and get his revenge for his wife’s murder.

Though, he doesn’t get so far, as James jumps at him, knocking them both to the ground. Steve tries to get out of James’s hold on him, but it does no good. He’s assuming that James must be doing something in order to keep him down.

“Steve, you must go!” James says. “You have no idea who this woman is, and how dangerous she can be!”

“I think I know just fine.” Steve says, glaring over at the woman, who was just getting up and making her way over to them. “She’s the witch that killed Peggy.”

James stops, looking down at Steve under him. “She’s my aunt.” He says.

Steve stops struggling at that. James just said that woman is his aunt? “She’s your aunt?” He asks, looking up at him.

James nods. “Yes, but you have no idea how powerful she is. She’s much more powerful than I am.” He says rather hurriedly, before standing up. “But she betrayed her own kin, and got my mother killed, and I’ve sworn to kill her. Even if it kills me in the process”

Steve gets up too, after noticing he’s able to get up. The woman, who Steve knows as Nadia, stops in front of them, smirking at Steve.

“Nice to see you again, Steven Rogers.” She says. “How’s the wife?”

Steve glares at her. “Dead because of you.” He seethes.

She chuckles a little at that, shaking her head, before turning to James. “This won’t be the last time you’ll see me, James.” She says, starting to turn away.

James watches her, not exactly interested on letting her go just yet. He still very much wants to kill hr, and so does Steve so it seems. But he and Steve should probably discuss this all first before they go to kill her. And, they’ve got to figure out how they’re going to do it. Nadia is a lot more powerful than James is, and Steve is just a regular civilian after all.

“When I see you next, you’re dead, Nadia.” James says, regretting letting her go so easily, but he knows that she won’t be leaving just yet until she’s finished what she came here to do.

Though, James can only speculate that she came here searching for him, so she can kill him just as she did to his mother. Or she’s here to harm Steve and his daughters. There’s no way that James is going to let her lay a finger on Steve, Elizabeth, and Grace though. He’d die to protect them.

Nadia just chuckles at that, shaking her head, before she’s disappearing. Supposedly off into the forest. James isn’t too sure, but he can still sense her presence and power close to the town. He’s not sure how he didn’t feel it before, but now that he thinks about it, Nadia probably did something to stop him from sensing her presence in the town.

“Why’d you let her go!” Steve exclaims, turning to James.

James looks over at him. “Steve, I know what you’re thinking, we should’ve killed her right then and there. But you have no idea the power she possesses.” He says. “She’s the strongest witch that I know of. You and I need to discuss some things first before we go off and kill her.”

“She’ll probably have fled by then!” Steve says.

James shakes his head. “No, I can still sense her presence and power around here.” He says. “And she won’t be leaving this town until she’s finished what she came here to do.”

Steve sighs, reluctantly giving in. Even though he wants to go after that witch, he knows that James is probably right. He knows her more than he does after all.

“Alright, fine.” Steve sighs, before folding his arms across his chest. “Though, we should probably go and talk about this.”

It’s James’s turn to sigh this time, before he’s picking up his bag from off the grass and following Steve back into the house. The time has finally come to tell Steve the truth. And, Elizabeth and Grace should know this as well. James assumes that they both know that their mother was killed by a witch, or at least he assumes that Elizabeth would know.

Whatever happens now, James isn’t sure. But what he is certain of, is that he’s going to protect Steve, Elizabeth, and Grace at the cost of his life.

And that the next time he and Nadia meet, he’s going to kill her, and he doesn’t care if he dies with her. Just as long as Steve, Elizabeth, and Grace are safe, he doesn’t care whether he lives or dies….


	18. XVII - Barnes Comes Clean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm just going to mention right now that I'm thinking of writing a prequel to this of Bucky's time as a pirate. So keep an eye out for that. Not sure when exactly I'm going to write and post it though.

"Talk." Is the first thing that Steve says, as he and James get back into the house and sit down at the table.

James is quiet for awhile, not sure on how to say it. Steve knows he's a witch now, and James himself has discovered that the witch who had killed Steve's wife, was his aunt, Nadia, and that Steve is out to kill her just as he is himself.

Though, the fact that Steve is wanting to kill Nadia just as much as he is, might just make this whole thing a little easier. But who's to say that once Nadia is dead, that Steve won't try and kill him straight after? He _did_ say he's killed witches before, and he's got one sitting in his house right now. One that's been living with him for awhile now...

"James, please talk." Steve urges him.

"Where do you want me to start?" James ask, not meeting eye contact with Steve.

"From the start would be nice." Steve says.

Sighing, James shakes his head. Steve has the right to know, but James was never expecting it to be revealed like this.

"Nadia had betrayed her own sister. My mother." He starts. "She had purposefully let it slip to the town that my mother was a witch, and she was executed for it." He says. "I was only thirteen at the time, and I've been on my own ever since."

He risks looking over at Steve to find him listening intently to what he's saying. James takes that as a good thing, and that Steve seems to be willing to listen to what he's saying.

"I had followed in my mother's footsteps after that, and had became a witch myself. Though, it's always been in my blood to be a witch. But after Nadia had gotten my mother killed, I had sworn that the next time I see her, I'd kill her." He says. "The problem is, she's quite powerful. Much more powerful than I am, and she only seems to be getting stronger."

James looks down at the table at that, not really sure on what else to say. He hadn't prepared himself for telling Steve at all that he's a witch, and that's the thing that he has to do right now. But at least Steve seems to be interested in hearing it all, and not just killing him straight away.

Actually, James doesn't even know if Steve is planning on killing him or not. He wouldn't be surprised if he does, and he wouldn't be angry if he is to kill him.

"Why did you become a witch?" Steve asks.

James looks up at him. "Like I said, it's always been in my blood to become a witch." He says. "I didn't want it at first, but after Nadia got my mother killed, I decided to follow my destiny, and become what I'm always supposed to be." He sighs, shaking his head. "And, even though I love it, it's also torture. I can't stay in one town for long periods of time, in case the townsfolk find out about what I am."

Steve nods, sighing a little. "You think I'm going to kill you now, don't you?" He asks. "Well, I can't deny that I don't like what you are, but what we've got between each other..." He trails off.

"I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to see me after this." James says. "If it's for the better, once we've killed Nadia, I can leave this town for good, and leave you and the girls alone. If it's what you want, then you don't have to see me ever again."

Steve doesn't directly reply to that. He's not even sure what he wants to happen after they've killed Nadia. He doesn't know for sure whether or not he wants James to stay here still afterwards, or have him leave and not return.

But in killing Nadia, where are they supposed to even start? James says she's much more powerful than he is, so that's going to make it a hell of a lot more difficult to kill her.

"Can I ask how exactly you know Nadia?" James asks. "I understand that she killed your wife, but how did you come to meet her?"

Even though he doesn't want to talk about it, Steve knows that James has every right to know how he knows Nadia. Well, he _supposes_ he does anyway, seeing as the woman is his aunt, _and_ had gotten his mother killed.

"Peggy was the one to meet her first." Steve starts. "They ended up becoming friends, and about two months after that, Nadia had either hexed or cursed Peggy." He says, looking down at the table. "She died not long after that. And before I could track down Nadia, she had already fled."

James nods. He had assumed that was how Steve had met Nadia.

He goes to ask Steve more on the matter, but is stopped, as Elizabeth and Grace run over to them.

"Father, Sheriff Dugan is outside." Elizabeth says, glancing between her father and James. "He's with Falsworth and Morita."

Steve nods, glancing over at James before turning to Elizabeth. "Did he say why he's here?" He asks.

Before Elizabeth even gets the chance to say anything else, James stands up, shaking his head. They're looking for him. He just knows they are. Nadia must have went to them and told them that they'd find the witch here.

"They're looking for me." He says. "Nadia must've told them."

"Told them about what?" Elizabeth asks, turning towards him. "And why would they be here for _you_?"

Glancing over at Steve, James is unsure if he should tell them what he is. But Steve doesn't seem to indicate whether or not he wants his daughters to know that James is a witch. So, James assumes that he should probably tell them anyway. They'll find out either way anyway, so why not have them actually find out from him instead of someone else?

"I'm a witch." He says. "My aunt, Nadia is here, and she's more than likely told the authorities about me, and now they're here to take me away."

Elizabeth is quiet for awhile, before she glares up at him. "I knew there was something different about you." She seethes, before turning to her father. "You let a witch _live_ with us?" She asks. "Father, you know mother was killed by a witch!"

"Yes I know that, Elizabeth." Steve says. "But, we need him right now. The witch who killed your mother is back, and Bucky is the only one who really knows her."

"She's my aunt." James explains. "And I want her dead as much as you and your father do." He says. "She got my mother killed, and I've promised myself that the next time I see her, I'm going to kill her."

Elizabeth hesitates, seemingly not sure on what to do, but from one glance at her father, she seems to make up her mind. "Okay." She starts, shaking her head. "I don't like what you are, but how are we going to kill the witch that killed my mother?" She asks. "And, what are we going to do about Sheriff Dugan who's still waiting outside with two more of his men?"

James looks over towards Steve. He never thought this through at all, even though he _knew_ that Nadia would have gone to the authorities about him. But James never planned on what he'd do in that situation. And he barely even knows what to do right now.

"I'll go talk with them." Steve says. "It'll buy you some time to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving this town until Nadia is dead, Steve." James says. "But do go talk with them, I'll figure something out."

Steve nods, before making his way to the front door. James watches him go, before he turns to Elizabeth and Grace.

All he's got to do now, is figure out what the hell he's supposed to do. He's debating on whether or not to just go with the Sheriff without a fight, and then break out of the cell later on. That shouldn't be too hard.

Actually, maybe if he does decide to do that, then Nadia will come and see him then, and he can try and kill her then. Or at the least, try to weaken her as much as he can manage to.

"Okay, I might actually have an idea." He starts, deciding on that plan of action. "I'll go with the Sheriff and his men, and _if_ I'm lucky, Nadia will come see me in there, and I can try and do some damage to her while I'm in there." He says.

"Will that work?" Elizabeth asks.

"I really don't know." James admits. "But it's the only thing that I can think of. If I go quietly with them, then there'll be no need for conflict now." He says, before walking over to the other side of the room where his bag is. "I need you to keep a hold of this for me." He picks up his bag, and hands it over to Elizabeth.

"What's this?" She asks, examining the bag.

"Just most of my stuff." He says. "My spell book is in there, along with a few other bits and pieces." He explains. "Just, promise me you won't let anyone touch anything in there."

Both Elizabeth and Grace nod their heads in understanding. Though, before either of them can make a move to go hide James's stuff, Steve walks back in followed by Sheriff Dugan, and two of his men, Falsworth and Morita.

James looks over at Steve, who seems to be a little disappointed that he's still here, and hasn't made a break for it to avoid being arrested.

"So, this is the witch then?" Sheriff Dugan asks, walking over to James. "Your time's up, lad." He says. "You're coming with us."

"Fair enough." James says, glancing over at Steve. "I'm tired of running anyway."

Sheriff Dugan is noticeably confused on how easy James has given himself over. But he doesn't say anything about it, just instructs for Falsworth to place the iron cuffs on James's wrists before they're taking him away.

James isn't too sure if Steve is able guess what he's decided on what his plan of action is. If he has or hasn't though, he's not making any move to stop Sheriff Dugan from taking him away.

Besides, even if Steve hasn't guessed what James is doing, Elizabeth and Grace will more than likely fill him in on the plan. Or at least, James assumes and hopes that they will...


	19. XVIII - A Visit From Auntie Dearest

Steve watches on as James is carted away by Sheriff Dugan and his men, Falsworth and Morita. He wishes that James hadn't let them take him, and that he had made a break for it while he was talking with the Sheriff. Instead James has gotten himself carted off to a jail cell.

As soon as he can no longer see them through the trees, Steve sighs, shutting the front door, before turning to Elizabeth and Grace. "Why wouldn't he make a break for it like I told him to?" He asks.

He's not really sure why James wouldn't have just made a break for it like he told him to. Though, James has mentioned that he's tired of running, so maybe that's why? No... that's more than likely the reason. But, he had said that he's going kill Nadia, and Steve isn't entirely sure how he can do that while he's locked up in a cell.

"He said he has a plan, father." Elizabeth says. "I honestly don't know how he expects it to work, but he said he's going with this plan."

"What plan?" He asks.

"That he's going to let them take him, and go quietly as to not start any unwanted conflict." She explains. "He said that Nadia is more than likely going to try and see him in there, and he said that when she does, he's going to try and do some damage to her."

Steve nods. Though, he's not so sure if that will be a very smart idea. But considering he's only just found out that James is a witch, he's not sure on how powerful he really is. What he does know though, is that Nadia is a lot more powerful than James is, so this plan that he has might not even work.

Then of course there's still the issue of him still being locked up. Unless of course he can easily escape that. Steve is sure that James is able to do that fairly easily. The jail in this town isn't exactly witch proof, so James is bound to be able to escape it easy enough. Unless he's going to be put in a cell that's guarded the whole time. But Steve is sure that James would be able to take care of any guards.

"Father, I may not know how well this is all going to work out." Elizabeth starts. "But I do believe that James knows what he's doing." She says.

Steve sighs, shaking his head. "I don't doubt that he knows what he's doing." He shakes his head. "I'm just afraid of what may happen to him if his plan doesn't work."

"What will happen if it doesn't work?" Grace asks. "Are they going to kill Bucky?"

Steve frowns at that, before pulling both of his daughters closer to him, hugging them tightly. "Not if I can help it."

There's no way that Steve will allow for James to be executed, even if he _is_ a witch. Which of course goes against all that Steve has promised to do. He had sworn that after Peggy had died that he'd kill every and any witch he comes across - which has honestly only been a few in the past two years - but here he is now, finding himself in love with a witch. A witch that he doesn't want to see executed, and one he'll do anything in his power to protect.

After all this is over, Steve is going to fight for James's freedom to live peacefully in this town with him, without anyone coming after him for being a witch. He understands that James just wants somewhere where he can live in peace without having to run.

And Steve is going to make sure that James gets exactly that.

**********

James doesn't complain as Sheriff Dugan orders Falsworth and Morita is lock him away in one of the _supposedly_ most secure cells. Which comes as a surprise to the sheriff and his men, as they were expecting him to put up more of a fight. Even getting here from Steve's home James never once put up a fight.

"Not so rough, aye?" James asks, as he's shoved into the cell, attempting to rub at his arm that one of the men had a bit too much of a hard grip on. Though, with the iron cuffs he's still got on his wrists, it's a bit difficult. "The cuffs not coming off then?" He adds, holding his arms out through the bars.

Sheriff Dugan laughs at that. "Nice try, witch." He says, as Falsworth locks the door to the cell. "The cuffs stay on."

James nods. "Thought so." He says. "By the way, might I inquire as to who informed you that I'm a witch?"

Of course, he already knows exactly who had came to the Sheriff about him being a witch, but he wants to hear it from the Sheriff himself. And just maybe a little bit of a truth spell may work in his favor.

"A woman came in informing us that she spotted the witch hanging round near Rogers's residence." Sheriff Dugan says.

"Right." He nods, leaning against the bars. "And this woman, she didn't tell you what her name was?" He asks.

The Sheriff is quiet for awhile, before shaking his head. "No." He says. "As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever seen her around this town before."

"That didn't strike you as being odd at all?" James asks. "With a small town such as this, I'd have thought that everyone knows everyone here." He says. "Is that not the case here?"

Looking over towards the other two men, Falsworth and Morita, James notices that they seem to have begun to realize that he's doing something to Sheriff Dugan to get him to talk. But, they don't make a move to interrupt whatever is going on, and just keep their hands on their pistols.

"Well, now that you mention it." Sheriff Dugan starts, shaking his head.

Turning back to the Sheriff, James nods. "What if I were to tell you that I'm not the only witch in this town?" He asks. "The woman who sold me out? She's also a witch. A powerful one, much more powerful than myself."

"What do you mean?" One of the other men, who James believes is Falsworth, asks. "How are you so sure?"

"She's my aunt." He explains. "She got my mother killed, and I have sworn to kill her because of what she did." He says. "But, I can't exactly do that while I'm locked up in here."

The three men on the other side of the bars move away to talk between one another, and James can't help but roll his eyes at them. Though it's completely understandable that they're wary of him, and that there's the chance that they don't believe what he's saying. So there's a very high chance that they're not going to just let him out.

But he _really_ can't do much locked up in here. He may be able to inflict some damage onto Nadia if she comes to see him in here, but it's probably not going to be much damage.

He's actually not that certain if Nadia will turn up here, but there's a very good chance that she will, and James will be ready for her. He can still feel her presence in the town, but right now, she's nowhere near the jail. She seems to be closer to the town square, but James is sure it won't be long until she's here to see him.

"Nice try, witch." Sheriff Dugan finally says. "But you're not going anywhere except to the noose."

At that, James rolls his eyes. Another trip to the noose. Sounds about right, and if it weren't for the fact that he's got a witch to kill, then he'd go to the noose, and let them kill him. He doesn't want to keep on running any more, and if he can't have somewhere that he can live in peace without having to keep on worrying about being hunted down, then he might as well just give up and be executed.

As he watches the men walk off away from his cell, James backs away from the bars, and sits on the ground, leaning up against the wall. All he can really do now, is wait for _if_ and _when_ Nadia will show up. He suspects that it won't be too long now, but when exactly she's going to turn up, he's not sure.

He just hopes that she doesn't take a detour on the way here, and goes back to Steve's house. If she does, he's not entirely sure if Steve and the girls will be able to protect themselves from her or not. So for their sakes, she better stay well away from them, and come straight here.

**********

Laying back on the ground, James just stares at the roof. The roof that doesn't exactly look very stable, considering the large hole in one corner. Maybe he could try and climb out through that, and get back to Steve and the girls in case Nadia is there right now.

Well, he would try that, if not for the fact that he can finally feel her moving around, and her presence seems to be growing stronger towards the jail. Which makes James right when he had guessed that she'd come in here to speak with him. If only he could do more damage to her while he's in here than he probably already can.

He's not entirely sure how much damage he'll be able to inflict on her, seeing as his wrists are still cuffed, and he's also behind bars. Though, he can easily escape if he tried. It won't be too difficult for him to break free from the cuffs around his wrists, all he needs is a little magic. But, he's content on leaving the cuffs on and staying behind bars for now. He'll get out soon, but right now, he's almost exactly where he wants to be.

He only just hears the footsteps coming down the stairs, which causes him to sit up and look over towards the stairs down the hall. It doesn't take long for Nadia to come down and make her way over to James's cell.

She looks down at her nephew, smiling wickedly as her sister's son is right where he belongs. Behind bars, and set for execution.

"Hello, James." Nadia says, causing him to get up and lean against the bars. "Nice to see you right where you belong."

James cocks his head to one side. "Is that so, dear aunt?" He asks. "The way I see it, is that _you_ should be the one in my place."

Gripping the bars tight, he watches the woman on the other side of the bars walk around a bit, but still keeping her eyes on him. All James wants, is to end Nadia's life, no matter how difficult it may prove to be. She betrayed his mother and got her killed, and James is prepared to take his revenge.

Also the fact that she's the witch that had killed Steve's wife, James is prepared to avenge Peggy's death even if he never met her. He knows that Steve is more than likely wanting to be the one to kill Nadia, but James just can't let him do that. He doesn't want him to get hurt, or worse, _killed_.

"If you see it in such way." Nadia chuckles, turning to face him properly. "I must say, you've grown a lot since I last saw you." She says, looking him up and down. "But I am still more powerful than you, and there's nothing you can do to stop me, James."

"Doesn't mean that I'm not going to try." He says. "You got my mother killed, and I'm going to avenge her death."

"Your mother deserved to be executed." Nadia seethes. "The good for nothing woman was an embarrassment to our kind." She says. "Much like you are."

James watches her walk around again, not taking his eyes off her. Soon he'll make his move and try and do some damage to her. After that though, he's not entirely sure what to do, he hasn't exactly planned that far ahead. Though he's for sure going to break out of this cell, and more than likely go back to Steve.

After that and after he's killed Nadia though? He's not completely sure. He's not even sure if Steve will still want him around. So if Steve doesn't want him around any more once Nadia is dead, he's probably just going to let himself be executed, or move on to another town.

"Well." James starts, deciding that maybe now is his chance. "It's been nice chatting with you, but you know how it is."

Doing as best as he can with the cuffs on his wrists, James casts a spell towards Nadia, taking her off guard and causing her to fly back against the stone wall behind her. He goes to send another one her way, but this time she was expecting it, and dodges the attack easily, sending one of her own towards James.

The spell hits him easily, and he's thrown back, hitting his head and back against the wall behind him. Falling to the ground, he groans as his head starts pounding and his vision starts to go blurry. He _really_ hit his head on the stone quite hard, so he's got no doubt that he'll be losing consciousness soon.

In one last ditch effort, he sends another spell towards her. Unfortunately she blocks that one too. But doesn't send another spell towards James. Knowing that she's already beat him.

Slowly, James finds himself losing consciousness. But not before he sees Nadia leaving the way she had came down.

"I'm not done with you yet, James. First I've got to pay a visit to that _friend_ of yours." Is the last thing James hears from Nadia, before he blacks out on the ground, and darkness overtakes him....


	20. XIX - The Escape

While James is locked away in a cell set to be executed, Steve gets to work on figuring out exactly how he's going to get him out of there. He doesn't want to see another person that he loves die, and once they've killed Nadia, he's going to fight for James's right to live in this town in peace. Steve will do anything to make sure that James gets that.

But _how_ he's going to be able to do that? He's not entirely sure. He hasn't quite planned that far ahead yet, and to begin with, he still needs to get him out of the jail cell, which shouldn't be too hard. Maybe....

Steve can break James out of his cell easy enough, considering he _did_ make the bars of each cell. Well, more or less anyway, he had helped make them. Though surely since James is a witch, he'd be able to break himself out easy enough? He doesn't think the Sheriff has anything that weakens witches at least.

"Father, how are we going to save Bucky?" Grace asks.

Steve sighs, shaking his head. He knows Grace has grown quite fond of James, Elizabeth, not so much. But he thinks that both of them don't want to see anything bad happen to James, especially Grace.

"I don't know, sweetheart." Steve sighs. "I'm still trying to figure that out." He says, before looking over at Elizabeth, who seems to be looking through that spellbook of James's. "Elizabeth, is there anything that you can find that is of use in James's spellbook?"

Surely there's something in there that could be of use to them? Then again, it may not be _very_ useful to them, as they don't know the correct way to conjure the spells. If only James was with them right now, and not locked away in a cell.

Elizabeth sighs, shaking her head. "Not in a language that I can read or understand." She says. "Father, we do not have the skills to read and use anything in this book. If we need to use anything from in this book to kill this witch, Nadia. Then it would be best to leave that to James. He's the witch here, not us." She closes the book, and walks over to her father. "What we should be trying to figure out, is how we're supposed to get him out of that cell."

Steve sighs, nodding his head. He knows that Elizabeth is right. They need to worry about how they're going to get James out of that cell more than finding anything in the book that could help, especially now that Elizabeth has told him that none of it is in a language that they understand or can speak. Honestly though, he may have had a slight feeling that the spells and most or everything in James's spellbook wouldn't be in English.

"You're right." Steve sighs. "We _should_ be trying to get him out if that cell. We're not going to be able to kill Nadia without him." He says, getting up off his seat. "I can easily break him out of there, as I helped make the cell bars. But I feel as though he can no doubt get himself out of there easy enough."

Elizabeth nods, going to say something, but is interrupted by someone or something breaking into the house.

Steve pushes both Elizabeth and Grace behind him, protecting them from who or whatever is breaking in. Though, as Nadia walks into the room, Steve knows that there really isn't much he _can_ do to protect both Elizabeth and Grace, from what James has told him at least anyway.

"What are you doing here?" Steve asks. "James isn't here."

"Oh, I know he's not here." She says. "I've got some unfinished business to do here, and then I'll go back and finish off my dear nephew."

She casts what Steve can assume is a spell of sorts at them, and he pushes both Elizabeth and Grace out of the way so they don't get hit. Though, the blast of whatever she had cast at him, sends him knocking into the table that Elizabeth and Grace have now taken cover under.

"Go get Bucky." Steve says quickly to the girls. "I'll deal with her as best as I can."

Both Elizabeth and Grace look between one another, the two of them frightened over the whole ordeal, and not sure whether or not they can get to James before Nadia gets them as well as their father.

"Go!" Steve says, as the girls get up, and run out of the room, somehow without Nadia seeing, but Steve suspects that she can see, and is wanting them to get Bucky.

Getting up off the floor, Steve feels a sharp pain on his side from where he had hit the table, though he does his best to ignore it as he grabs a sword that he keeps hanging on the wall. He's not sure if a sword will do any damage at all to a witch like Nadia, but it's the best he can do. He's beheaded a few witches with a sword before, but they weren't as powerful as Nadia, and he actually had time to prepare, unlike now where he's completely unprepared, and wounded.

"You think you can beat me?" Nadia asks.

Steve shrugs, holding the handle of the sword tighter. He doubts that he can do any damage to her, but that doesn't mean that he's not going to try.

"Not really." He says. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try."

With his sword raised high, and ignoring the sharp pain in his side, he launches himself straight at her...

**********

"James!" A voice calls to him, but he can't quite put a name to the face. "James, wake up! It's me, Elizabeth!"

 _Elizabeth?_ Elizabeth... _Swann_ perhaps? Now that name he is most certainly familiar with. But how can she be here? The last he had seen of Elizabeth Swann, was after the battle between the pirates, the East India Trading Company, and the crew of Davy Jones. He doesn't understand how she is here now, or what she's doing here...

Groaning, he rolls over onto his side, screwing his eyes shut. "Elizabeth?" He asks, not able to open his eyes just yet. "Elizabeth _Swann_?"

It can't be _her_ , can it?

"No, Elizabeth _Rogers_." She says. "Steve Rogers's daughter."

Right. Now that makes a lot more sense to James than it being Elizabeth _Swann_. He's not entirely sure why his first thought was that it's Elizabeth Swann, and not Steve's daughter. Maybe it's because he happens to miss her.

Sitting up slowly, he rub at the back of his head where he had hit the stone wall behind him, though it's a little difficult with the iron cuffs on his wrists. His head doesn't hurt as much as it did previously, but James _still_ feels a dull ache where he was hit.

"Right." He croaks, opening his eyes to find Elizabeth standing on the other side of the bars with Grace.

He goes to ask them why they're here, but then his eyes land on his spellbook that Elizabeth is carrying. And that alone makes him fear that something has happened, along with the fact that he can suddenly sense that Nadia is at Steve's. Which more than likely means that Steve is hurt. Or _worse_.

"What has happened?" He asks, getting up and walking over to the bars. "Where is your father?"

"He's at home." Elizabeth says. "But Nadia is there. Our father is trying to hold her off as best as he can, but I fear it will do no good."

James nods, he expected as such, and now he _really_ needs to get out of here. He can't stay in here while Nadia is with Steve right now. It's just a matter of time before she ends up killing him, and James most certainly won't let that happen.

Looking down at the iron cuffs around his wrist, James quickly casts a spell, before yanking his arms towards either side of them. The cuffs break easily, and fall to the ground, and James gets to work on bringing the cell bars down.

"You may want to move out of the way." He says.

Both Elizabeth and Grace move out of the way, as James sends the bars crashing down to the ground with a loud bang. No doubt that will have alerted the guards, so they've got to get out of here as quick as possible now.

"Come on." He says, urging Elizabeth and Grace along. "No doubt the guards will have heard that and will be down here soon. Hurry!"

Looking behind him, he can hear the faint sounds of footsteps coming their way from the left side of the jail, so they can't escape that way. The right side on the other hand, James is unable to hear anyone coming, so that may be their only hope of getting out of here.

Though, before he can get Elizabeth and Grace to follow him that way, they're leading him in another direction, but not towards the sound of footsteps that are quickly growing closer. They must know another way to get in and out, which would explain why the sheriff or any of the other officers didn't accompany the two of them down here. Though, that causes the question of how they know about another way out of the jail to arise...

Sure enough, the way that Elizabeth and Grace are leading him, takes them out of the jail and out onto the borders of the forest. Thankfully none of the officers are following them, which leads James to believe that they aren't aware of this way out of there. Which actually, James finds rather silly, they _should_ know about any possible escape routes in there.

"We need to make it back home before they can get us." Elizabeth says, handing James his spellbook. "We only took it with us just in case Nadia tried to take it while we were gone."

James nods, taking the book from her. "Except Nadia is not one to use a spellbook. She's already powerful enough without one." He says. "Now, let's get back to your father before Nadia does something bad to him."

The girls don't need to be told twice, before they're running back off home with James by their side. The three of them hoping beyond all hope that they won't find anything bad once they get there.

But as every second goes by, they begin to doubt that there _won't_ be something bad waiting for them...


	21. XX - Hexed

They run through the trees towards the house, with James glancing over his shoulder every so often in case there’s guards chasing them. Luckily there isn’t, but James won’t be surprised if by the time they get back to Steve that Sheriff Dugan will be there with his men waiting to take him back to his cell.

For now though, he’s not going to worry about that, and just follow along behind the girls as they run back to their father. James does hope that they know where they’re running to and that this is the right way to go. But considering the girls have more than likely lied in this town their whole lives, he’s got no doubt that they both know exactly which way to go. Though, it doesn’t stop him from hoping that they are going the right way.

As the girls slow down a little, James sighs in relief as he sees their house coming up in view. Though, considering it’s dark out, he can only just see it, though it must be nearing dawn now, as the sky is beginning to grow a little lighter.

“Wait.” James calls to the girls, as they stop near him. “Maybe I should go on in there by myself.” He says. “If Nadia is still inside with Steve, I don’t want you two getting hurt.”

“No way.” Elizabeth shakes her head. “We’re going in there with you.” She says. “That’s _our_ father in there, and we’re not going to just wait around outside while _you_ deal with Nadia yourself.”

“You don’t understand how powerful Nadia is.” James says, walking closer to Elizabeth. “I refuse to let you and Grace be anywhere near her while I try and kill her.”

He won’t be able to live with himself if they were to get hurt, or worse, killed. They may not be his daughters, but he sure as hell cares about them just as much as if they were even _if_ Elizabeth doesn’t very much like him.

“She killed our mother, James. I’m not just going to sit around and not help get rid of her.” Elizabeth says, walking closer to James, as Grace hangs behind a little.

James knows that she does have a fair point, but he won’t allow it. He doesn’t want to risk her or Grace getting hurt, and he’s positive that that’s not what Steve wants either.

“Elizabeth, no.” He says.

“Who is Elizabeth _Swann_?” She suddenly asks, catching him off guard. “When we broke you out of your cell, you asked if I was her.” She says. “Who is she? Is she someone you got killed?”

Looking behind him over at the house, he only just spots a figure leaving the house before disappearing. There’s only one person it could be. _Nadia_. Which means that she’s finished with Steve and has more than likely caused him great harm.

“Well?” Elizabeth asks.

Turning back to her, he sighs. “Look, Elizabeth Swann was a young woman that I knew from my time as a pirate.” He explains. “And as far as I’m aware of, she’s still alive.” He says. “But we have bigger things to worry about than who she is. I just saw Nadia leave the house, and we need to get to your father now, because he’s more than likely going to be hurt badly, if not killed.”

That seems to shut Elizabeth up, before she’s running over to the house with Grace and James following close behind. The three of them have no idea what they’ll find once they get in there, and James fears that Nadia has hexed Steve, so they might just well walk into a trap.

But hopefully that’s all Nadia has done to him. At least that’ll be easy enough to heal Steve, unlike if Nadia has killed him.

“Wait.” James says, pushing Elizabeth and Grace away from the door. “I’ll go in first.” He goes to walk in, but stops as he hands his spellbook over to Elizabeth to hold. “Hold this.” He instructs. “Don’t worry, Nadia isn’t here. I can’t sense her presence around here.”

“But does that mean she’s really _not_ around here?” Elizabeth asks.

James pauses, shaking his head. “Well, not really.” He says. “But for all our sakes, let’s just hope that she isn’t still here.”

Slowly, he opens the front door and looks inside. So far the coast is clear, but he isn’t even sure what he’ll find inside. For all he knows Nadia may actually still be in here despite him not being able to sense her presence. He’s not even sure if he’s going to find Steve dead or alive. Or alive and hexed. But dead is definitely not the way that he wants to find him.

Walking inside more, he looks around, but finds no sign of Steve so far. This begins to worry him immensely. Has Nadia done worse things to Steve than he first thought? Oh how he sure as hell hopes that she hasn’t. He also hopes that he’s not going to come across Steve’s dead body anywhere in here soon. If he does, he’s not even sure what he’s to tell Elizabeth and Grace.

Though, he doesn’t need to worry about that, as a dagger comes flying towards him. Luckily he ducks out of the way just in time though, and the dagger gets stuck in the wall behind him.

Looking towards where the dagger came from, he spots Steve moving towards him. Only, it isn’t _really_ Steve. Well, it _is_ very much Steve, but he seems to be under some spell. Which means that James was right in guessing that Nadia would’ve hexed him. He’s just glad that she didn’t kill him instead.

“Steve, listen to me!” James says, ducking out of the way as Steve throws something else towards him. Whatever it was, James isn’t sure. “Nadia has control of your mind! You need to fight it!”

If he’s being honest, James isn’t too sure if Steve can fight it and break free of the hex that Nadia has set upon him. So James is most likely going to have to help him out with that. Not that he doesn’t mind of course, but he just hopes that’s all that Nadia has done to him.

Steve makes no move to stop, and makes his way straight towards James, who backs away towards the front door.

Seeing that Steve is now carrying a sword, James looks over to one of the walls where another sword is hanging. Grabbing it, he aims it towards Steve.

“A sword fight aye?” He asks, examining the sword in his hand. “Been awhile since I’ve used one of these.”

Steve goes to swing the sword at James, but James easily blocks it, and runs outside, knowing that Steve is more than likely to follow him.

Spotting Elizabeth and Grace still standing outside, he goes over to them. “You both need to stay out of the way, and make sure he can’t see you.” He says, looking over his shoulder to see Steve just walking outside. “Nadia has hexed your father and has basically got him under mind control. Which means that he won’t hesitate in hurting you both.”

Spinning around just in time, James blocks off Steve’s hit with his sword, before trying to dislodge the sword out from Steve’s grasp with his. Though, it’s not much use, so instead he kicks Steve away from him.

“Go!” He yells to the girls, before they’re running off to hide out of the way,, Elizabeth still holding onto James’s spellbook.

Turning back to Steve, he finds him just getting up off the ground with his sword raised ready to strike James down. James isn’t entirely sure how skilled in sword fighting Steve is, but considering he’s a blacksmith, James assumes he has at least some skill with a sword.

Now James isn’t one to brag, but he’s pretty decently skilled with a sword. He would’ve had to be considering he was formerly a pirate a few years back. But he hasn’t had the need to use a sword since and he doesn’t personally own one, so his skills are more or less going to be a little rusty.

Though, as he and Steve battle it out in a sword fight out on Steve’s yard, James finds all the techniques and footwork coming back to him, it’s almost like he never stopped using a sword. It almost makes him miss the time when he was a pirate. _Almost._ He’s not too sure if he’d go back to being a pirate or not. That is, if he even makes it out of this whole thing with Nadia alive...

Finally, after he’s not too sure how long, James has knocked Steve’s sword out of his hand, and has now got him pinned to the ground. All he needs to do now, is undo what Nadia has done to Steve. Shouldn’t be _too_ difficult. Actually, James isn’t even sure how difficult it is. It’s not really something he’s had to use.

“I just hope this works.” He mutters, before calling both Elizabeth and Grace over.

As soon as Elizabeth hands him his spellbook, James is quick to flick through the pages to find the right spell. He’s also glad that the sky has gotten a bit lighter so he can read the pages, but he had cast a spell on himself long ago where he can see in the dark. Though, it didn’t really work, but he _can_ see in the dark better than the average human.

Finding the right spell, James reads through it a couple times, before setting his spellbook down on the grass next to him. He’s then getting to work on removing the hex that Nadia had placed on Steve.

Though, as he’s doing so, he notices that Steve also has a large gash on his left side. Either Nadia had done that to him, or James had done it while sword fighting with Steve. But considering he doesn’t recall actually getting Steve with the sword at all, he’s assuming that Nadia had done that to him.

“Did it work?” Elizabeth asks, as James moves off of Steve.

James looks up at her. “It takes a bit of time.” He says. “But, I hope so.” He looks back down at Steve still laying unconscious on the grass. "It's not really something I've had to do before."

"Well that's very helpful." He only just hears Elizabeth mutter. But he chooses to ignore it.

Steve should awake soon. Well, _should_ if James had done it right, which he’s sure he has. He is still alive and breathing, so James guesses that that is a good thing. Though, it’s no indication if it worked…

While they await for Steve to regain consciousness, James gets to work on healing up the wound on his left side. Now _that_ is a spell that he’s used many times before and has basically got that spell perfected from the amount of times he’s had to use it.

As James is doing said spell, Steve jolts awake, causing James to falter in healing his wound.

“What happened?” Steve asks, trying to sit up, but James pushes him back down gently so he can finish healing him. “Bucky?”

“Nadia hexed you.” James says. “Now lay still while I finish this.”

He does as James says, watching and listening as James speaks softly in a language that Steve does not understand, nor does he know what the language is. But hearing James cast the spell or whatever it is, has some sort of soothing effect on him, and Steve finds it quite nice.

“Alright. You’re all healed up.” James announces after a few minutes have passed, interrupting Steve from his thoughts.

Nodding, Steve gets up off the grass. He feels a lot better than he had previously, and the sharp pain in his side is all gone. “Thank you, Bucky.” He says.

James nods as he picks his spellbook up from off the ground. “Now, Steve.” He starts, his voice growing serious. “I want you to tell me exactly what happened with Nadia.”


	22. XXI - The Spell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so after this chapter, there _should_ only be two more chapters left and then an epilogue, but now, I honestly don't know... I guess we'll have to wait and see.

"Steve, tell me everything that happened." James says, as Steve, Elizabeth, and Grace follow him into the house.

As Steve recalls everything that happened when Nadia showed up, James begins clearing things off the small table. He's going to need a bit of space to lay everything out. Though there's just one problem... He's not sure if he'll be able to find everything in time.

"Wait, Bucky? What are you doing?" Steve asks, once he's finished telling James everything that had happened while Nadia was here.

James looks over at him. "A spell that I've never used before, and thought I'd never have to use." He says. "One that can possibly make me strong enough to defeat Nadia. It may be the only thing that will stop her."

He scans through the page of ingredients in his spellbook. It's one of the spells, well potions really, that he has never used before, but looking through the ingredients, he already has a few things in his bag. Though, the last ingredient makes him stop. The last ingredient, he _definitely_ hasn't got, and it's not like something he ever thought to keep a stock of, as he doesn't really do these types of spells.

Steve notices James's mood drop only just in the pale light of dawn. "What is it?" He asks, as James looks over at him.

"The spell..." James trails off. "It requires the blood of a virgin." He says. "It's not something I've ever kept a stock of, as I don't tend to do spells like this. And more often than not, these types of spells require _fresh_ virgin blood."

"Virgin blood?" Steve asks. "Well, where are we supposed to..." He trails off, before realizing the only way they can get virgin blood. " _Oh_..."

James nods, looking at Steve apologetically. "Yeah..." He trails off, before looking over towards Elizabeth and Grace.

Considering Grace is only like, ten, James is certain that she's a virgin. But he couldn't bare to take blood from her. Elizabeth on the other hand, he can only assume that she is, but all the same, he doesn't want to take blood from her either.

Except, they don't have enough time to go out and find a virgin, and even if they did, there's no possible way that they'd agree to this.

"How much blood do you need?" Elizabeth asks, walking over to James's side.

Glancing up at Steve, he notices that he doesn't look very pleased with this, but they've got no other choice. Looking back down at his spellbook, he sighs in relief as he reads that it's not all the blood of a virgin. If they needed all, then James would have scrapped this idea. There's no way in hell that he'd kill Elizabeth for the sake of a spell to kill Nadia. A spell that might not even work in the first place too.

"Not all." James assures her, though he's more or less assuring Steve more than he's assuring Elizabeth. "If it needed all, then I'd find another way to kill Nadia."

Elizabeth nods, holding out her arm for James to cut and take blood from. "Do what you need to." She says. "Even if this plan doesn't end up working."

Looking over at Steve once more, he still doesn't look very pleased with this, but seeing as it's not all of the blood they need, he looks to have slightly changed his opinion about it. Even so, James knows that there's no way that Steve is at all happy with this. James isn't too happy about it himself, but it's the only way that _might_ work to stop Nadia. At least Elizabeth is willing enough to give some of her blood.

"Okay." James nods, before turning to look through the ingredients once more. "I need all of the other ingredients first though." He says. "Now, I _do_ have a small supply of a few of these items in my bag."

At that, Grace runs over towards where she and Elizabeth had hidden James's cloth bag. Luckily it was still in the place that they had hidden it in. once she's grabbed it, she brings it over to James, who searches through it.

Setting down what items from the list the spell needs that he has in his bag, he turns to Steve. "Steve, I'm still missing a few items." He says. "Is there any chance that you'd be able to find comfrey, rats bones, and horse hair?"

"I'll be right back." Steve nods, before running out of the house.

"Be careful!" James calls out after him, not entirely sure if Steve had heard him or not.

Turning back to the ingredients in front of him. He has almost everything on the list except for what Steve's gone out to look for, and the virgin blood, which he's actually rather surprised by, as he'd have thought that he wouldn't have a lot of this stuff. Though upon closer inspection of the ingredients list, it appears that it will need his blood too, and not just a little of it much like with the virgin blood. He's not sure how he missed that at first, but he guesses the lighting in the room right now has something to do with it.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asks.

James sighs, shaking his head. "The spell requires my blood as well." He explains. "And a _lot_ more of it than what I need from you." He says. "Though, I suppose that would make sense in a way."

He supposes that it would make sense for the spell to require his own blood as well. Most of these types of spells do after all, so it really shouldn't come as too much of a shock to James. Though it's really more of the way that his own blood is required that has taken him by surprise. He doesn't particularly like the idea of having to chop off his own hand in order to complete a spell. Reasons why he prefers to not use spells like this...

Shaking his head slightly, James starts placing everything they need to the side of the table, and searches through his bag for his white chalk to draw out on the table what he needs to. He also gets Grace to get him a large bowl so he can place everything into it.

He's not too sure how much time has past by the time Steve comes back inside with the comfrey, rats bones, and horse hair, but when he does, James takes them from him gratefully, and places them down next to the other items.

"The comfrey took a bit longer to find than first thought." Steve apologizes. "The rats bones weren't too difficult though, except the cats that are out in the barn don't really catch any of the rats. It's more so the mice that they catch."

James nods, before laying them all out next to the bowl. "That's fine." He says. "Now, I'm going to need a sharp knife or sword."

Steve nods, grabbing one of the swords that he and James were battling with outside not too long ago, and passing it over to James, who sets it down on the table in front of him. He'll be using it soon, but isn't exactly very keen on the purpose that it'll be used for.

Maybe he can find a spell that grows back missing limbs afterwards. That way he won't have to battle Nadia one handed. There's surely a spell for that.

As Steve, Grace, and Elizabeth stand out of the way, James begins placing everything into the bowl, while reciting the first part of the spell. James isn't too sure if it'll work, but he's already starting to feel something, so maybe it is working? Though, he'd find out more once he has the virgin blood from Elizabeth and his own blood in with the rest of the items.

"Elizabeth." James calls, holding a hand out, while he picks up the sword in the other hand. "Hold your hand out over the bowl." He instructs, as Elizabeth makes her way over to him slowly and holds her hand out for him to take.

James pulls her closer just a little, and moves her hand around above the bowl so once he cuts the palm of her hand, the blood will drip into the bowl. He doesn't look at Elizabeth's face once as he brings the sword down across the palm of her hand, and slices it just deep enough for the blood to drip down into the bowl.

He only just hears Elizabeth's gasp of pain, as he squeezes her hand carefully to get more blood from the wound. Once he believes he has enough in order for the spell to work, he quickly recites a healing spell, waving his hand over the wound in one swift motion.

"Go stand back with your father now." James instructs her, as she takes her hand away, surprised by the fact that the cut is no longer to be seen on the palm of her hand. "Go." James repeats himself, before Elizabeth is quick to move over to her father's side once more.

James gets right back into the spell after that. Except, the next and last thing it needs, is the blood and bones of the witch performing the spell. Which means that it's time for James to cut his own hand off.

Picking up the sword again, he holds his left arm over the bowl. He just hopes that the sword will be sharp and strong enough to cut through the bone as well as the skin. And he sure as hell hopes there's a spell for growing back missing limbs...

Closing his eyes, he raises the sword up above his left wrist, before bringing it down in one swift movement. He groans in pain as the blade of the sword pierces through his skin and flesh, hitting the bone. It becomes a bit difficult to get the sword to cut through the bone, from the immense pain he's now experiencing. But as soon as it cuts through, his severed hand lands on the table with a thud.

His blood drips and spurts onto the table and the ground, but James isn't too worried about that right now, as he sets the sword down and grabs his hand off the table and places it in the bowl with everything else.

He only just manages to ignore the searing pain in his left arm enough to complete the spell. Not knowing what would come from performing the spell, James falls to the floor, as bolts of magic shoot out of the bowl and right at him.

Steve, Elizabeth, and Grace watch on from the other side of the room, as whatever it is shoots out of the bowl and right at James, knocking him to the floor. He convulses on the floor, as what appears to be blue and purple flames swirl around him, before eventually they disappear, leaving James laying on the floor covered in blood.

"Stay there." Steve instructs Elizabeth and Grace, before making his way over to James slowly, who had only just opened his eyes, and was staring at nothing in particular above him.

As he draws closer to James, Steve notices that James's eyes are glowing a very bright blue, and when James finally turns his head to look over towards him, they begin to fade back to their normal blue.

"Well, that's something that I never plan on doing again." James sighs, groaning in pain as he sits up. "It feels like it worked though. But I am _never_ doing anything like that again." He looks down at his left wrist. Blood was still oozing out of the stub where his hand was previously, and it's still quite painful. "Help me up, will you?"

Steve nods, helping James up off the ground, and over to one of the chairs at the table. "You _can_ fix that, right?" He asks.

James shrugs. "Maybe." He says. "Hopefully there's a spell that grows back limbs."

With his right hand, James pulls his spellbook over to him, and flicks through the pages. There _should_ hopefully be a spell in here, and if there is, hopefully he can find it fast, before he loses any more blood.

"Bucky, you didn't mention that the spell required you to cut your hand off." Steve comments, after getting an old rag, and cleaning up some of the blood from the stump of James's left arm, and holding the rag over it to try and stop any more blood from oozing up.

"Let's just say I didn't read all the ingredients properly, and missed _that_ part at first. I blame the lighting in here." He says, before wincing as Steve accidentally squeezes on James's wrist. "Ow, Steve, careful."

"Sorry." Steve apologizes. "Any luck on finding a spell to fix _this_?" He asks, referring to James's now missing left hand.

James hums in response as he comes across one. "Yes." He says. "And thank god, too. I don't think I'd be able to take on Nadia single handedly."

"Did the spell work to make you more powerful though?" Elizabeth asks, as she and Grace finally make their way over to them.

James shrugs. "It's a bit hard to tell." He admits. "I mean, I _do_ feel somewhat more powerful, but it's nothing compared to the power that Nadia possesses." He says. "But it might just be enough to defeat her."

"Well let's just hope it will be enough." Steve sighs, removing the rag from James's wrist.

James nods. "We can only hope." He sighs, before getting to work on the spell that will grow back missing limbs.

It takes a few minutes, but as soon as James has performed the spell, a new hand begins to grow in place of the one that he had to cut off. Though, instead of it being human flesh, it appeared to be some sort of dark silver stone, or metal much like the blade of a sword.

James can’t help but be impressed with the new metal hand for a few seconds, before he’s getting off the chair he was sitting on.

“Come on.” He starts, getting Steve, Elizabeth, and Grace to follow him. “We’ve got a witch to kill.”


	23. XXII - To Kill A Wicked Witch

Riding into town on the horses, James isn't sure what they'll find there. He knows Nadia is in the town somewhere though, as they get closer, her presence grows stronger, and Nadia can no doubt sense him coming closer to her, and that he's more powerful than he was previously, but it still may not be enough to defeat her.

James still isn't entirely sure on how he's going to kill her, he only knows that he's not going to stop until she is dead. The traitorous woman deserves death, and his mother and Steve's wife, Peggy deserves their deaths to be avenged.

"Have you figured out a way that you're going to kill her?" Steve calls to him, from where he rode his horse behind James's horse.

"No." James calls back. "Not really, I was thinking maybe just do whatever I can to defeat her." He says. "You have some experience with killing witches though, maybe you might come in handy."

James has to admit, Steve's experience in killing witches may come in handy, but maybe not until Nadia is weakened. He doesn't want Steve to get involved while Nadia is still at her full power.

"Well you're lucky I've got some supplies." Steve calls back.

Looking over his shoulder at Steve, he only just notices the cloth bag that Steve has got with him. He never even realized that Steve had grabbed it before they left, but it's a good thing he did grab it.

Looking back ahead of him as he hears Nadia's voice in his head, warning him to surrender to her or she'll kill Steve, Elizabeth, and Grace along with the whole town, James gets his horse to move faster. Though he does feel sorry for having to make Agatha run faster than she already is, he's not too sure how much more the horse can take.

As they draw nearer to the town, James is able to sense the destruction that Nadia has already managed to inflict on some of the residents. He just hopes that whatever Nadia had done to them, he is able to heal them all. Though if she's killed any of them, then unfortunately that is out of his power to bring them back.

Whatever that spell had done to him, it certainly doesn't involve bringing people back from the dead. All that spell has really done to him, is make him more powerful, and made him get a new hand.

Riding through the gates of the town, James is quick to race off in the direction that Nadia's power is emitting from. He doesn't look behind him, but he knows for a fact that Steve and the girls are still right behind him on their horses.

He'd rather prefer that Steve and the girls weren't following him, as he doesn't want any of them to get hurt - especially the girls - but the fact that the three of them are still right there behind him, makes him rather pleased. Though he still would prefer for Elizabeth and Grace to stay as far from all of this as possible, but he knows that's quite unlikely.

Still though, James would rather the girls stay away from all of this. Same with Steve, but even so, he'd much rather Steve stay back than fight against Nadia. Cause truth be told, James isn't too sure how well steve's experience in killing witches will work on Nadia, even when she _is_ weakened. Well, that is, _if_ James can weaken her...

"Steve, you and the girls hang back." James says, getting down from his horse, and leading her over to Steve, who had just gotten off his. "I'm going to go look for Nadia."

"Bucky, wait." Steve says, grabbing James's arm and getting his attention.

James turns to look at him, unsure of what Steve is trying to do. But he realizes quickly what Steve is trying to do as he pulls him in for a quick kiss, and James is quick to kiss him back. Though, the kiss doesn't last very long, and they're pulling apart just as quick as the kiss had lasted.

"Be careful, aye?" Steve tells him. "I don't want you getting hurt."

James smiles a little, nodding his head. "Don't worry about me, Steve." He says. "Just worry about you and your daughters. They matter more than I do." He glances over at Elizabeth and Grace, who are both still on their horse.

He doesn't want to see anything happen to Elizabeth and Grace, and he certainly doesn't want Steve to worry about him more than his daughters. Though, James is sure that Steve worries more about his daughters than he does about him, and so he should. But he knows that won't stop him from worrying about his safety right now.

"I'm going to worry about you even if you don't want me to, Bucky." Steve says.

"I know, Steve." James says.

Steve nods, moving back so James can get going to search for Nadia. Though, just before James can go off, Steve stops him once more.

"Bucky, what do we do while you find Nadia?" He asks.

James stops, turning back to Steve. "Just keep out of sight." He says. "When I need your help, you'll know. But I want to weaken Nadia before you get involved."

With that, he's running off in search of Nadia, leaving Steve standing there with the girls and the horses.

"Is this going to work, papa?" Grace asks.

Sighing, Steve shakes his head, as he walks over to the horse that both Grace and Elizabeth are still on. "I don't know." He admits. "All we can do, is hope that Bucky manages to weaken Nadia and defeat her." He goes to say more, but turns around as he hears someone approaching them.

He's somewhat surprised to find Sheriff Dugan and his men, Falsworth and Morita making their way over to him, and with just one look at them, Steve knows that there's something wrong. He's not sure exactly what, but he can guess that Nadia must have put them under a spell or hexed them.

"You're under arrest, Rogers." Sheriff Dugan states. "For breaking that witch out of its cell."

Steve steps back at that. "He may be a witch, but James Barnes isn't the witch you should be after." He says. "There's another witch here that is far more powerful than he is. James Barnes is trying to get rid of her."

He's not sure how he's expecting them to believe that, especially when it seems that they're under some sort of spell, but he says it either way. Maybe he's just hoping that they're not too far under to understand and believe what he's saying. Then again, they already know that James is a witch, so why should they believe it when someone says that there is also a second witch here too? Especially when it seems like they've been put under a spell by said second witch.

"No funny business, Rogers." Dugan says. "You're coming with us." He grabs onto one of Steve's arms, pulling him closer and cuffing him. "Get the girls." Dugan instructs to the two men behind him.

Steve's eyes widen, and he tries to pull out of Dugan's hold. But he cannot escape, and so he can only watch on as his daughters are cuffed just like him.

"Please, leave them out of this." He pleads, as he watches Morita and Falsworth getting Elizabeth and Grace off their horse, and cuffing them. "This has nothing to do with them!"

Elizabeth and Grace both struggle against the men who are restraining them, and Steve wants so desperately to be able to help them escape, but he's unable to. Sheriff Dugan and his men are under some sort of spell caused by Nadia, and whatever spell it is, Steve doesn't appear to be able to overtake them and escape.

_This is not what James meant by staying out of sight..._

**********

As James runs through the town searching for Nadia, he goes over in his mind what he could possible try and do to stop her once and for all. He's not entirely sure if he will be able to kill her, but he's not going to stop until he's killed her, or she has killed him. Just hopefully she'll be the one that ends up dead and not him, or if he _does_ end up dead, that she also ends up dead.

Stopping in the middle of the town square, he spins around, trying to spot her amongst all the buildings. It's still rather early in the morning, so he's glad that none of the townsfolk are out and about right now, or at least not very many of them anyway, as there are a few townsfolk out and about right now. James hopes that Nadia hasn't hexed any of them, or put them under some spell...

Stopping as he sees something or someone in the alleyway of two buildings, he quints, trying to see if he can identify whether or not it's Nadia. Though, as whatever or whoever it is makes their way out of the alleyway, James doesn't have to try and figure out who it is.

"I've been waiting for you, James." Nadia says, making her way over to him, stopping in the middle of the town square a few feet away from him.

"And I've been waiting years to kill you for what you have done." James says back. "I don't care if it kills me in the process. All I care about is avenging my mother's death."

Nadia chuckles. "Well then, dear nephew." She starts. "Shall we begin?"

James huffs, ready to end the traitorous woman's life. He's been waiting for this moment to come, and now that it's here, and he's got more power than he had previously - plus a shiny new left hand - he's not going to let the opportunity go this time.

He would've tried to kill her all those other times, but quite honestly, they weren't the right moments to do so, even if he _really_ wanted to just end her the first time he saw her again. But he wasn't powerful enough to take her on, now though, he may _just_ be powerful enough.

Getting ready, James smirks, preparing himself for battle. _"Indeed we shall."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was going to be more to this chapter, but it'll be in the next one, I just didn't want it to be too long.
> 
> Also, there's for sure 2 more chapters after _this_ one, and then an epilogue.


	24. XXIII - The Fight For Vengeance

Steve groans as he hits the ground of the cell that Sheriff Dugan and his men had just pushed him and his daughters into after they've taken the cuffs off their wrists. This definitely isn't what was supposed to happen, but Steve knows for sure that they won't be in this cell for very long.

Considering the fact that Steve had helped build the bars on the cells in here, it shouldn't take him too long to get himself and his daughters out of here. Then there's the case of needing to get out of there unseen, but that shouldn't be too difficult either. He knows of a way out, and luckily so do both Elizabeth and Grace, as when Elizabeth was younger, she'd used to sneak in and visit Steve here while he was working on installing the bars to the cells, after they had to get a new jail block built after the fire that destroyed the last one.

Steve assumes that both Elizabeth and Grace had led James out that way after they had broken him out. Though honestly, Steve is surprised that no one has sealed that way off so no one can go in or out through it. He would've thought that it would have been closed off by now. But he's not going to complain about it, as they're going to have to get out of there that way.

"Now what?" Elizabeth asks, as soon as Sheriff Dugan, Morita, and Falsworth are out of sight and earshot.

"We're getting out of here, and going to find Bucky." Steve says, as he gets up and examines the bars.

There should be a weak spot somewhere, he's just got to find it, and then they're out of there. Hopefully but the time he finds the weak spot and they've gotten out they're not too late in going to look for James. They seriously hope that wherever James may be in the town now, that he's alright.

Steve knows that there's the chance that James has already located Nadia right now, and is already battling against her to try and kill her, there's a pretty high chance of that. But he hopes that James isn't hurt at all. Though, he's probably bound to get hurt, but Steve is hoping that he doesn't get too hurt.

Finding the weak spot on the bars, Steve grabs onto the bar with both hands, and tugs on it. The bars don't give way, but they do move ever so slightly, which begins to make Steve worry that the bars have since been enforced with stronger bars. If they have, then he's not too sure _how_ they'll get out. _Unless..._

"Elizabeth, find me something to pick this lock." He says. "Just in case I can't get it out any other way."

Though, now that he thinks about it, picking the lock might be the quietest way to go. Unlike if he were to break it down, Sheriff Dugan and his men won't be able to hear them escape if they were to pick the lock.

Rummaging through his bag with his witch killing supplies, that he’s surprised Sheriff Dugan didn’t take - and even more surprised that Sheriff Dugan hadn’t taken his sword into custody - Steve tries to find something inside it that may help with picking the lock, as it doesn’t seem as though Elizabeth and Grace are having any luck with finding anything to use in the cell. It doesn’t really surprise him that they can’t find anything in the cell to pick the lock with though, as he doesn’t expect that type of thing to be just laying around in a cell. Well, not _really_ at least.

Finally finding something that may be of use - a bit of steel wire that he's not entirely sure of how had ended up in his bag - Steve begins attempting to pick the lock. Thankfully it’s not too difficult and they’re out of there in no time, and off through the secret passage way out of the jail block. Though, before they can go off to find James, they have to figure out what Sheriff Dugan had ordered his men to do with their horses…

The first place they look for their horse's is the stable near the jail block, and thankfully they don’t have to look any further as they manage to find their two horses, and James’s horse inside the stables with a couple other horses.

Steve orders the girls to stay back as he gets their horse and then his horse out of the stables that they’re in. he decides on leaving James’s horse there for now, just until all of this is over. Plus, they _really_ only need their horses right now, and he’s sure James won’t mind if they leave his in there for now.

Though, on second thought, maybe it would be better to go and find James on foot, that way they can pass by unseen. But then again, by horse is probably quicker, and would make it easier for them to escape if they really need to, unless of course, their horses don’t get shot at.

“Come on, we need to hurry.” Steve says, as soon as he gets up on his horse after helping Elizabeth and Grace onto their horse. “We’ve got to find James, and stay out of sight.”

“Easier said than done, father.” Elizabeth says. “And how do we know when exactly James wants us to show ourselves and have you help kill Nadia?” She asks.

Steve looks over at her. “I don’t know.” He shakes his head. “But he said I’ll know it when he needs my help. Whatever that means.” He says. “And you two are to stay out of sight altogether. You both are not going to get anywhere near Nadia, and are to stay away from the fight.”

“But I want to help!” Elizabeth says. “Father-”

“No.” Steve cuts her off. “I will not have the both of you get any more involved in this than you already have.” He says. “I don’t want to see either of you get hurt.”

Elizabeth sighs in frustration at that, gripping the reins of her horse tighter with one hand, while her other arm wraps around Grace’s waist a little more. She wants to help fight Nadia, but both her father and James don’t want her to do so. Though, she can understand why they don’t want her to, but it doesn’t make her any less angry that they won’t let her help take down the witch that had killed her mother.

“Now let’s go.” Steve says. “We’ve wasted too much time already, and we need to go find James.”

At that statement, they’re off, riding through the town in search of James who _hopefully_ is still okay, and isn’t at all injured. _Or dead…_

Over in the town square, James is still battling against Nadia. He hasn’t quite managed to overpower her just yet, but for once he actually seems to be doing some damage to her, which he owes it to the spell he had cast upon himself. Though, for however long he shall live _if_ he survives this, he sure does hope that he’ll never have to use that spell ever again, or any spell like that for that matter.

“Why don’t you just give up, Nadia?” He calls, as one of his spells knocks her to the ground. “You’ve lived long enough already!” He says, moving closer to her, a limp in his step from landing on his leg awkwardly after Nadia had thrown him across the grounds not too long ago. “Let those who you’ve caused the death of be avenged already!”

“You really think I’d surrender easily, boy?” Nadia chuckles, getting up off the ground, stumbling a little as she goes. “You must be foolish!”

“Never said I thought it would be easy, just that I was going to kill you for what you have done.” He says, before risking a quick glance around the both of them.

They appear to have an audience now, but thankfully James cannot locate Steve, Elizabeth and Grace anywhere amongst the other townsfolk who have begun to gather around them. Though he does notice the owner of the Howling Wolf, Tony Stark amongst them, along with those other two friends of Steve’s Natasha and Clint Barton. Which suddenly dawns on him that they are now aware of the fact that he’s a witch.

Not exactly the way he would’ve wanted them to find out that he’s a witch. But there’s nothing that he can do about it now. The whole town probably knows that he’s a witch now, and of the fact that Steve Rogers has been keeping a witch in their very own town. Now that’s probably not going to make Steve very popular with the town, and most _certainly not_ going to make James at all popular.

Turning back Nadia, James dodges her shot just in time, rolling out of the way to avoid being hit by her spell. Though, there’s still the slight sting in his right leg that he had landed on awkwardly earlier, and as it starts to sting and throb more, James takes it as Nadia having only just hit him with whatever spell she had sent his way. If only he hadn’t gotten distracted for a short amount of time, then he wouldn’t have been hit at all. It can’t be helped now though.

Getting up off the ground as the few townsfolk near him run off away from him, James gets ready to send off another spell towards Nadia. But, he becomes distracted once more, as he notices Steve and his daughters not too far off riding nearer to the town square.

Nadia sees this as an open opportunity to send James flying across the ground, right in through the wall of the building nearest to him.

Groaning in pain, James gets up slowly, dusting off the glass, rocks, and rubble from him, before he’s crawling on his hands and knees back out into the fight. Though, as he tries to get back up, he stumbles and falls back to the ground.

Pushing himself up with his arms, he looks up to see Nadia walking over to him. Though, he smiles to himself a little as he notices that she seems to have lost a bit of her power, and from whatever of her power that he can feel is left in her, he realizes that it’s much closer to his own power. Maybe he has just enough strength left to kill her before she even has the chance to kill him.

“Why don’t you just die already?” Nadia asks, as soon as she stops in front of him. “Give up, James. It is your time to perish.”

Spitting out blood onto the ground, James slowly sits up on his knees, glaring up at Nadia. “You’ll be the one to die, you wretch.” He spits.

Though, before either of them gets the chance to cast a spell on the other, the blade of a sword is pierced through Nadia’s chest from behind. James looks around, to find that the swordsman is Steve.

Nadia freezes, looking down at the blade of the sword sticking out her front.

“Go to hell, you bitch.” Steve seethes, pushing the blade of the sword into Nadia more.

“You think this is enough to defeat me?” Nadia asks, before erupting into a coughing fit, blood spurting out of her mouth.

“With a normal sword? Of course not.” Steve says. “One specifically made for the killing of witches? _Yes._ ” He twists the sword in her back.

James huffs in surprise at that. He should have expected that Steve would own something like that, but he hadn’t realized that he had brought it here with him. He hadn’t seen it on Steve’s person while they were riding into the town, but he sure is glad that Steve had brought it with him.

“This is for Peggy.” Steve states, before he’s pulling the sword out of Nadia’s back. “And everyone else you’ve caused the death of.”

He then swings the sword in the air, before slicing it across Nadia’s neck, decapitating her. Her head flies a bit away from them, and her body slumps limp to the ground.

James stares at Nadia’s headless body in shock, before looking up at Steve, who stood there, sword dripping with blood in one hand, and staring down at the now lifeless body of Nadia.

“S-Steve.” James rasps out, breathing heavy, and his body hurting almost all over, as he slowly feels himself losing consciousness.

Slowly, his vision goes black, and James is slumping down onto the ground. His body weakened by the fight with Nadia that is now finally over, he lets the darkness overtake him, as he blacks out then and there.

But not before he notices that Steve has dropped down onto the ground beside him and has carefully brought him onto his lap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must admit, action scenes aren't _really_ something that I'm that good at writing, but I tried my best.


	25. XXIV - Don't Do Anything Stupid, Rogers

When James regains consciousness, it takes him a little while to figure out where exactly he is, and what had happened previously. Though, as soon as he does figure out what happened, he goes to sit up, but finds that he can’t. Someone has restrained him down onto the bed he’s laying on.

“What the hell?” He mutters, as he finds that both of his arms have been chained to the floor on either side of the bed along with his legs. Across the rest of his body, there appeared to be more chains, holding him securely down.

Is _this_ the thanks he gets for saving the town from Nadia? Really? Maybe if he knew that the town would do this to him, he should’ve just let Nadia kill them all, and _then_ kill her afterwards. Though, he didn’t kill Nadia himself. Steve was the one to kill her in the end.

That brings up the next question in his mind. _Where is Steve currently?_ The answer to that, he’s unable to answer, but wherever he may be right now, James sure hopes that he’s fine and safe.

Unless of course Steve was the one who had chained him up here. It wouldn’t _really_ surprise him, considering that he’s a witch, and Steve has killed witches before. But that’s not to say that _if_ it is Steve who chained him up here, that he’s not hurt by it.

Looking over towards the doorway as he hears arguing, he hears Steve’s voice arguing with another. “He helps save the town from the witch, Nadia, and _this_ is the thanks he gets?” He only just hears Steve says. “He saves the town, and in return he’s awarded with his own _death_?”

James sighs at that. He had a feeling that even _if_ he defeated Nadia and survived, that the town would still sentence him to death. Even if he saved them, it doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s a witch and is to be executed for being so.

_“One good deed is not enough to redeem a man for a lifetime of wickedness.”_

“Though it seems enough to condemn him.” James hears Steve reply to he’s assuming is Sheriff Dugan, before the door opens and Steve walks in.

“Steve!” James exclaims, relieved to see that Steve isn’t hurt.

At the sound of James’s voice, Steve rushes over to him, and kneels on the floor next to the bed. “Bucky.” He starts. “I swear this wasn’t what I wanted.” He says. “I tried to stop them.”

James shakes his head. “Steve, it’s okay.” He assures him, before looking away from him. “I knew that even if I survived in defeating Nadia, then I’d still be condemned to death. I _am_ a witch after all.” He turns back to Steve. “What did you do with Nadia’s body?”

“We burned it.” Steve says. “No more than three days ago now.” He adds.

 _Three_ days ago? It’s been _three_ whole days since they defeated Nadia? “Three days?” He asks. “It’s been three days?”

“Yeah. Nadia really did some damage to you.” Steve says. “You’re in the town’s hospital right now.” He adds.

James huffs at that. “And what type of hospital has to restrain it’s patients down like this?” He asks.

“One that is afraid that said patient will kill everyone.” Steve sighs. “The whole town knows you’re a witch now, Bucky. And they thought that restraining you down onto the bed would be the safest way to go.” He says. “No matter _how_ much I protested saying that you’re not a danger.”

That last part takes James by surprise. Steve actually stood up for him against the town? Though considering what he heard out on the other side of the door not too long ago, it shouldn’t have came to much of a surprise that Steve would do that.

“You didn’t have to do that for me, Steve.” He says, smiling a little, before frowning as he looks away from him.

He really does appreciate Steve doing that for him, but Steve really didn’t need to do so. In fact, Steve doesn’t owe him anything at all. He should be the one owing Steve, seeing as Steve had allowed him to live in his home with him and his daughters.

Though, James has a feeling that Steve will tell him that he doesn’t owe him anything, considering he defeated Nadia. But _Steve_ was the one to kill her in the end, not James.

“Yes I did.” Steve says. “And I’m not going to just stand back and allow them to kill you for being a witch.”

James sighs, turning his head to look at Steve. “I’m tired of running, Steve.” He sighs. “Maybe it _would_ be better for everyone if I am to be killed.”

“It wouldn’t be better for me.” Steve states. “I do not want to see you dead, James.” He says. “And I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure you’re not killed because of what you are.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, Rogers.” James says. He’d hate to see Steve get in more trouble than he probably already is for keeping him in his house.

Before Steve gets the chance to reply to that, Sheriff Dugan and Morita and Falsworth walk into the room, which causes Steve to scowl slightly. None of them will let James walk free from the hanging that has been set for him in a couple days time. They don’t even seem to care that James had saved the town.

“Alright, times up, Rogers.” Dugan says. “We’ve got to take the witch to his cell.”

But Steve doesn’t move away from James’s side. He’s not going anywhere, until James is free from his charges - which really is only him being a witch - and is allowed to live out the rest of his life freely in this town. Who knows, having a witch living in the town may end up bringing good fortune to them all.

“Steve, just let them take me.” James sighs. “I’ll be alright.”

“You and I both know that to be bullshit.” Steve says. “They’re going to kill you, and I won’t let them do so.”

James sighs, but doesn’t say anything. He knows very well that Steve is right, but what can he _really_ do to stop this from happening? He doesn’t want to have to keep on running any more, and if he finds a way to escape death, then that’s exactly what he’ll have to do, keep running each time someone from whatever town he’s staying in finds out that he’s a witch. He doesn’t want that.

There’s also the fact that he doesn’t want to make Steve’s life more difficult, and having him in it, might just do that. But if he were to just be executed, then Steve and his daughters won’t have to worry about him making their lives more difficult. Though, considering they’ve associated themselves with a witch - _and_ a witch that has also previously been a pirate, but no one else knows about that - their lives will more than likely never be the same. James just doesn’t want to add onto that if he stays alive and stays with them.

As Morita and Falsworth are undoing the chains that are keeping James down, Steve is having to be held back as he begins protesting and trying to stop them from taking James away. James on the other hand, just lays there as they get the chains off him, and cooperates easily as they get him off the bed, cuffing his wrists together once more, and placing shackles around both his ankles.

Though, before they can take him away, Steve manages to break away from the men who are holding him back. He rushes over to James, grabbing him by the arm before pulling him in for a kiss. James kisses him back immediately, lifting his hands up to cup Steve’s face in his as best as he can with the cuffs around his wrists.

“I’m going to get you out of this.” Steve says, as soon as they’ve pulled out of the kiss, not caring about the reactions from the men around them after they’ve just witnessed two men kissing. “I love you, and I want you here with me, James Barnes.”

James sighs, resting his forehead against Steve’s. “I don’t want to keep on running anymore.” He chokes. “If I don’t let them just kill me, then that’s _exactly_ what I’ll have to do, and I don’t want to have to keep doing that, Steve.”

“I’ll find a way where you won’t have to run any more.” Steve shakes his head. “I don’t want to lose you.” He screws his eyes shut. “ _Please_. Don’t make me lose someone else that I love.”

Sheriff Dugan and his men seem to have gotten over their shock, as they pulls Steve and James away from each other. But not without more protest from Steve, who it takes them a while, but they’ve eventually got held down onto the floor, as Dugan leads James away to the jail block to lock him up in his cell until his execution, which may now have to be sooner than two days away.

As James is being escorted out of the hospital and over to the jail block, he keeps his head down for the most part, trying his best to ignore all the townsfolk that are starting at him. Though, every few minutes when he does look up, he notices that some of them look a little confused about all of this, and from the ones talking amongst each other, he manages to catch some of them asking one question.

_“Why are they locking up the man that saved the town?”_

Though, he does manage to catch some answering to that with the fact that it’s because he’s _still_ a witch. But hearing them questioning why they’re locking him up and then having him executed after that, makes James begin to wonder if just _maybe_ this town could possibly be okay with allowing him to live out the rest of his life here. Even if he _is_ a witch.

As soon as Sheriff Dugan pushes him into his cell, and lock the Door behind him, James just sits there on the ground and waits. There’s not much he can really do, even though he can easily escape his shackles and bust out of his cell. But he doesn’t want to do that.

Instead, he’s going to wait and see how all of this plays out. He’ll let them take him to his appointment with the hangman’s noose, and see what happens from there.

Either he’ll let them kill him, which would stop him having to run all the time. Or wait and see what Steve is going to do to stop all of this.

He just hopes that Steve won’t do anything stupid...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just an epilogue after this, and then this story will finally be done!


	26. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, last part! _finally_
> 
> Now, I realize that this may have been better suited for a chapter and not an epilogue, but oh well. In the plan I had for this story, this part was always meant to be in the epilogue.

Only a day later, and James’s execution has been set. James still hasn’t seen Steve since he had woken up in the hospital, and he’s unsure if it’s because he’s figuring out how to get him out of here like he said he would, or if he’s been locked up also. He just hopes that they haven’t killed Steve. Though, that sounds rather unlikely.

James keeps his head down as he’s being led out of his cell and through the jail block. He doesn’t even look up as they lead him over to his death, all he does, is just walk along willingly as he stares down at the ground. It’s only when they’ve got him standing before the hangman’s noose that he looks up at the crowd of people standing below to watch.

He’s never understood why executions had to be publicly viewed. He certainly wouldn’t want to watch someone being hung. At least, not since he witnessed his mother’s execution.

Looking through the crowd as the man next to him places the noose around his neck, James feels a pang of disappointment as he can’t spot Steve amongst the crowd of people. Though, that’s not to say that he doesn’t exactly doubt that Steve will show up.

At the same time though, James hopes that Steve doesn’t show up after all, despite what he had promised about getting him out of this mess. James doesn’t care if he lives or dies, so it doesn’t make much of a difference to him. But at least with death, he won’t need to keep on running, so he’d rather take death.

But the fact that  _ this _ is how the townsfolk decided to repay him for saving their town from Nadia? James won’t lie, he’s a little pissed at that. He saves them from Nadia - though technically he didn’t kill her - and his thanks is an appointment with the gallows? Not the best thanks he’s ever received. Though, he’s never really received much thanks to begin with, so he’s really not too surprised about this.

Sheriff Dugan is speaking, but James isn’t listening. Quite frankly, he doesn’t care what the sheriff is saying, and just wants them to get this over with already, or for Steve to show up already. But maybe Steve hasn’t managed to figure out a way to get him out of this mess, and isn’t going to come after all.

“Any last words, witch?” Sheriff Dugan asks, getting James’s attention.

But he chooses to stay silent, as he stares out at the crowd of people watching. There  _ is _ things he wants to say, but it’d probably be best to not say them at all.

As he’s looking out across the crowd of people, he notices that some of them look as though they don’t think they’re making the right decision in executing him, even if he  _ is _ a witch. Though, James sees none of them make any move to stop this from happening… But he supposes that may just be because they’re quite possibly afraid of him

That is, until he hears a horse coming towards him. The rider of the horse? Steve. Who had figured out a plan after all. Though, James is unsure of how well it’s going to work, or what his plan even is.

As James notices some of the guards running towards Steve, he quickly mutters a spell under his breath that sends them flying away from Steve. At the same time, Steve is getting off his horse, and running through the crowd of people, who begin to scatter to get to safety.

More guards run at Steve, but Steve is quick to fend them off with his sword. James knows he should get down there and help him, so that’s exactly what he does, breaking the cuffs from around his wrists, and then doing the same to the ones around his ankles.

Taking the noose off from around his neck before the man next to him gets the chance to pull the lever that would send him hanging to his death, James takes his sword before jumping down off the platform to help Steve out. Though, he has to admit, Steve seems to be doing okay, he’s not entirely sure how well trained Steve is in swordsmanship, but he doesn’t seem half bad at it.

“This part of the plan?” James asks, as he fights his way towards Steve’s side.

“Well, kind of.” Steve says back, before dodging one of the officer’s swords coming his way. “Nice to see you seem to have chosen to stay alive.”

“I haven’t made a set decision yet, Steve.” James says, swinging his sword around at one of the officers. “But I don’t want to see you be killed.”

Steve nods. “Fair enough.” He says, before they’re both getting straight back into the fight.

They’re not too sure how much longer has passed, when the two of them are back to back with all of Dugan’s men surrounding them, with Sheriff Dugan walking over to them. James knew that this would be bound to happen, and now since they’re surrounded, he knows that they’re going to put him right back onto the noose, and quite possibly put Steve on it too.

“I should’ve expected something like this.” Sheriff Dugan sighs.

“I’m not going to let you kill him.” Steve states, raising his sword to the sheriff. “I won’t let someone else that I love be killed. Even if he  _ is _ a witch.”

Slowly, James turns around behind Steve so he’s looking at Sheriff Dugan from behind Steve’s shoulder. He doesn’t really want to properly face the sheriff just yet, and he’s content on staying behind Steve.

“Come on, Dugan.” Steve sighs. “He saved the town from the witch that was a real threat to us.” He says. “Shouldn’t that reward him with the opportunity to live out the rest of his life here in peace?” He asks. “It’s all he really wants after all.”

James looks down at the ground at that. He’d love it if he could just live out the rest of his life here with Steve in peace. All he wants, is to just not have to keep on running anymore. He’s sick of running, and he just wants somewhere that he can call a home, but if he can’t get that, then he’d rather choose death than having to keep on running for the rest of his life.

“Having a witch that we’re all on good terms with living in our town might just turn out as a good thing.” Steve says. “If we allow him to stay here, we all might just benefit from it.”

“Or he’ll turn against us.” One of the men standing around them says.

Steve looks over at the guard. “I’ve had him live with me in my own home for about a year, and he’s shown nothing but goodness.” He then looks over at James. “There’s not a speck of evil in him.”

“I say let the witch stay.” A female voice says.

The men all look over towards where the voice is coming from, to find Natasha Barton making her way over to them, followed by her husband, Clint, and the owner of the Howling Wolf, Tony Stark. Following them was that other guy that Steve works with at his blacksmiths shop, Logan. James is unsure of what his last name is, though he’s not entirely sure if anyone does.

“We’ve gotten to know James Barnes well enough by now.” Natasha explains. “Like Rogers has said, there’s no evilness in him.” She says. “Why else would he save us from that witch? One of his own kind?”

“Do you  _ really _ expect us to listen to the advice of a  _ woman _ ?” One of the men scoffs.

“No.” Natasha shrugs. “But to the advice of the whole town perhaps?”

At that, they all look over towards what Natasha is saying, to find the townsfolk surrounding them. Some of them were beginning to say that they agree with Natasha that they should allow the man who had saved them to live out the rest of his life in peace. Though, James does notice that there seems to be some people who don’t agree with the others, and are standing a bit off from the rest of the crowd.

“Please don’t kill Bucky.” Grace begs, running over to them with Elizabeth following behind her.

She runs straight over to James’s side, wrapping her arms around his waist, taking him by surprise, but he pulls her closer to his side a little, resting a hand on her shoulder. Elizabeth on the other hand, stands right beside her father, blocking the sheriff from laying a hand on James.

“Please, Dugan.” Steve sighs. “My girls have formed a close bond with him, especially Grace. Do you really want them to have to go through losing someone else close to them?”

“All I want, is to live here in peace.” James says. “I never wanted to be a witch, despite it being in my blood to be one. But after my mother - who was a witch herself, and a great woman - was killed, being called out by her  _ own _ sister, the witch I had saved you all from, I knew what I had to do.” He explains. “Follow my destiny, and kill the witch who got my mother killed.”

Sheriff Dugan is quiet for a bit, before he’s sighing, instructing his men to lower their weapons. Some of the men seem a little hesitant to do so, and James certainly doesn’t blame them. A lot of them are more than likely not comfortable with the idea of a witch being allowed to live in their town.

“Well then.” Dugan starts. “The town seems to be willing to allow you to stay in our town, Barnes.” He says. “And, if the town is comfortable with you living here, then so be it.” He decides. “Though, if you ever turn against us, you’ll have an appointment with the noose.”

James’s eyes widen at that. He couldn’t believe what he’s hearing. He’s officially allowed to live out the rest of his life in peace with Steve in this town. Though, he knows not everyone will be happy with this decision, but that’s good enough for him.

“I-I don’t know what to say.” He stammers. A loss for words on what he’s been granted.

Never in his wildest dreams did he think that he’d be able to have this, somewhere he can call a home and not have to keep on running. The best part? He gets to live out the rest of his life with the man that he loves.

Though, that brings up the question of what the town will think about him and Steve being together…. Though, he suspects that they know already, and they’re just too afraid of what he may do to them if they were to do anything about it. That’s what he assumes anyway…

“Dugan, thank you.” Steve says, joy clear in his voice at the fact that James is able to live out the rest of his life here in peace. With  _ him _ .

Dugan nods. “He’s still a witch though, Rogers.” He warns. “If he tries  _ anything _ to put this town in harm's way, then we’ll have to stop him.”

“You needn’t worry about that.” James assures him. “I wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing.”

It doesn’t take long for Dugan to call his men off, and they move away from them, along with the rest of the town, going back to James is assuming their homes or their places of work.

“Thank you, Steve.” James says, once they’re alone, aside from Elizabeth and Grace standing next to them.

Steve doesn’t reply, just smiles at him, before pulling him in for a hug and kissing him. James kisses back eagerly, and wraps his arms around Steve.

This is all that James has ever wanted. A home to call his own, and he’s glad to be able to share one with Steve and his daughters, who he’ll do whatever it takes to keep safe.

“Welcome to your new life, James Barnes.” Steve says, as soon as they’ve pulled out of the kiss.

James smiles at that, resting his head on Steve’s shoulder, as Steve wraps his arms around him tighter. He smiles even more, as he feels another pair of arms wrapping around him, and looks down to see that Grace is hugging them too, while Elizabeth was standing back from them a little.

“I know you don’t really like me still, but-” James starts, but Elizabeth cuts him off.

“No.” She shakes her head. “I think I’ve grown to like you, James.” She starts. “And, you make my father happy, and Grace certainly likes having you around. That is good enough for me. Welcome to the family, James.” She says, though, she still doesn’t make any move to join in with the hug.

He smiles at that, glad to know that Elizabeth no longer hates him. Though, he guesses she still doesn’t one hundred percent like him, but that’s good enough for him. He doesn’t expect her to like him straight away, and if it takes her awhile to like him completely, then that’s fine with him. He’s just glad to see that they’ve made some progress.

“Come on.” Steve says after they’ve been standing there for maybe a bit too long. “Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! This is _finally_ finished! Thank you to those of you who decided to read this!!
> 
> Also, real quick. I have a loose for a prequel to this about Bucky's time as a pirate, but I'm unsure if I should write it or not... If I do go to write it, would anyone be interested in reading it? It won't be up for a long while though, and there won't be any Stucky in it. But I'm just curious whether anyone would be interested in reading it?


End file.
